


There and Back Again: the Human's Guide to the Demon Realm (Title WIP)

by sewer_queen



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: <3, F/F, Slow Burn, We'll get there, also unsure how and what to tag, first fic i've written in over a decade pls bear with me, together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:09:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27689420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sewer_queen/pseuds/sewer_queen
Summary: The Boiling Isles have been made to reckon with change in the aftermath of the confrontation between the Clawthornes and Emperor Belos. Things have grown quiet and in the tranquility of apparent normality, our paragons begin to ask themselves: What next? Where do our allegiances lie? What do I want out of life? What are these new feelings? How do I get home? And what, exactly, is Emperor Belos' next move?In the quiet moments, Luz and Amity enjoy their time together. Boscha and Willow's feud comes to a head. The Blight children reckon with their family's expectations as well as their own wants and needs. And Eda and Lilith reckon with what must be done. When things go wrong, our loved ones may find themselves stuck out of place, facing their demons, lifting each other up, and even enlisting the help of those they least expect.---A slow burn fic - wanted to stay somewhat faithful to the original story material for this one and reckon with the end of S1 but there will be plenty of gushy slice-of-life memory making alongside tense plot action. Luz and Amity may get stuck on earth at one point. Also Stan Pines will be there.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Boscha/Willow Park, Emira Blight/Viney
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	1. The Healing Glyph

**Author's Note:**

> No active TW for this chapter, see end notes for some intro stuff.

_ Luz _

##  _ Hey mama. It’s been about … three weeks since Eda, her sister, and I confronted the Emperor. I know you’re probably worried sick about me - I know I would be too in your shoes… but things have been pretty quiet for a change! I think we were all expecting some like, super dramatic showdown, some “last stand” of the Clawthornes but, instead, nothing! Just business as usual.  _

_ Lilith is still staying here, Eda finally cleared out some space in one of her hoard rooms to make space for her so Lilith can finally get off the couch and away from Hooty. Things are still pretty tense between those two… and I think it’s gonna just be like that for a while. And, honestly, I’m still not entirely sure what Lilith’s deal is at this point. We haven’t really talked about what’s happened - like, really sat down to talk. It’s driving me insane! Like, things will be totally normal, super cool and laid back - then Lilith will just kind of look at me or Eda and just… I don’t know. Sometimes she cries, other times she just gets really weird. I feel like maybe she just feels guilty for how things went down… I don’t know. Ah! I’m sorry! I kind of got off on a tangent there. Anyway. It feels so weird not being able to really talk to you. I hope you get to see these someday soon. *chuckles* Honestly I can’t believe I’ve managed to keep this thing alive this long without a charge. Who could’ve guessed that they don’t know what USB-C is in the Demon Realm? Anyway, I should really get going so I don’t run through the battery in one go. Te amo, mama. I miss you. ## _

As soon as I hit the record button again to stop the video, I frantically closed all the apps and checked the battery level. “48%, crap!” I held down the lock button and mashed the screen as fast as I could to get it to turn off. I really didn’t expect it to make it this long but the longer I can make it last, the better.  _ Mom will want to see these someday. _

Watching my brave little phone wink itself goodnight felt like a weight being lifted off my back, only to be replaced by a heavier and much more lonely one. I let the weight flatten me out, letting my arms flop to my side from where they were propping me up before. With my face mashed securely in my pillow I let out the most cathartic groan I could muster and let my phone clatter gently to the floor. “ _ Guhhhhh… _ ” 

Almost on cue, my door slowly creaked open, casting a long shadow through the frame. The long, horned figure loomed menacingly over my bedroll, motionless and observing.

“Human Luz!” the mysterious voice squeaked powerfully. “I’ve prepared a list of demands, and woe be to you if you refuse to bend to my will!”

I rolled onto my back to get a better look at my assailant and rested the back of my hand against my forehead like a damsel in distress. “No! Whatever will I do!  _ Please _ , spare me! I’ll do anything!” I shot my assailant my best attempt at doe eyes as he inched ever forward, still casting a long, menacing shadow.

The demon chuckled. “Good… Good! I demand…”

“Huggies!” And suddenly the charade broke - the shadow shrinking rapidly as the King of Demons came running in towards me, arms outstretched like a toddler ready to be picked up. He pounced on my chest and wrapped his fuzzy arms around me. “Dios mio King you really got me good this time,” I struggled to say choking back laughter as the little demon stood and spun in tiny circles on my chest like a dog looking for that perfect spot to relax. Finally he flopped down and rested his chin just under my own, looking up at me with his red and gold saucer-dish eyes.

“That’s what you get for thinking you can just sneak off from dinner like that.” 

Silence passed over the two of us. King looked up at me in such a way that I’ve more-or-less started to become accustomed to these last couple weeks. I tried to force a smile in response and scratched the nape of his neck.

“You doing alright, Luz? I’m sorry to ask so much it’s just… well I worry about you boo-boo buddy. You’ve been spacing out even more than usual. I mean, at dinner, Lilith made a comment about finally reading those books you two nerds love so much and you didn’t even knock anything over.”

I sat up a bit, pushing my back up against the wall as King slid listlessly into my lap; still gazing up at me over his boney nose. I couldn’t help but to giggle at the idea of Lilith donning her best Azura cosplay. “Don’t sweat it, King - I’ll be alright. All this down time it’s just… it’s given me a little too much time to think, you know?” 

King said nothing, but gripped a little tighter with his arms - careful for once to not dig in at all with his claws. “There’s just been so much change lately, you know? I mean, Lilith’s now cool, supposedly? We’re like… double the outlaw we were before but I still get to keep going to Hexside? Honestly it’s hard enough keeping my head on a swivel during my walks to school and just… well I can really see how much of a toll the whole ‘near-petrification of the beloved Owl Lady’ has taken on everyone… and… well... “ I could feel heat rise to my cheeks and face, embarrassed by my unhinged rambling. My voice caught in my throat and I instinctively gripped King a little closer. I could feel my vision blur as hot tears began running down my cheek. Still, throughout it all, King sat and listened, even though I could feel that he hurt for me too. 

“I... I miss my mom.” I managed to eke out. I thought saying it would make the emotion come flooding out, pouring out of my dumb emotional face until I could finally sit back, sigh, and feel better. I couldn’t remember the last time I had one of those good, explosive, cathartic cries but, alas, tonight just wasn’t my night. 

“Listen… I know things have been, well, really weird lately. Everything seems so tense right now and everyone is going through such a weird time but… well don’t think for a second that I’ve forgotten what you lost. I know Eda and I probably aren’t much of a replacement but, well, we aren’t going anywhere, and we’re gonna help you see your mom again soon. I promise.” 

I let out a sigh and wiped my eyes clean. No, none of this was just going to be talked away, but King always had a knack to help steer me out of my recent nightly storms. “Thanks, King.” I let the silence simmer for a moment and let him see that I was gonna be okay. I passed him a reassuring smile. “Midnight snack time?” I raised my eyebrow devilishly.

“Luz you always know exactly what I want to hear. Now, onward steed!” He scampered up my sleeve and perched on my shoulder as I began to sit up, urging me onward like a stalwart little vaquero. Now, if only I could find a glyph that would let me conjure a tiny cowboy outfit… 

\----

“ _ Gwah! _ ” 

I shot straight up, sweating and winded from my intense, greasy snack fueled recurring nightmare: the one where I’m a therapist for a man whose soul is trapped in a cat’s body and he won’t stop screaming about Mondays.  _ Yeesh _ . I did my best to shake the sleep out of my eyes and limbs before looking around at the aftermath from the King and I’s late night snack raid. Chips, candied earwax, gummies, and salted screaming tree nuts lay strewn about - the quarry from our successful conquest. King lay where I left him, splayed out on a pile of chip dust encrusted gummy bears, snoring obnoxiously away.  _ Yikes, I’m gonna be the one that has to clean all this up later, aren’t I.  _ Taking in the damage, I gave King a gentle belly scratch causing him to kick reflexively at my hand. Then, panic struck.

_ Crap! Crap crap crap, I’m gonna be late! I’m already late!  _ I rushed open to the window to let the light in and see how late it was in the day and confirmed my worst fear. I sprinted towards the door, nearly slipping on a slick of apple blood before barreling down the hallway and down the stairs. “Gah please, please don’t be mad!” 

“Oh hey kiddo, where are you -  _ woah _ !” 

“Gah, sorry Eda gotta go! I’m running late!” I nearly ran full speed into Eda as I careened straight for the front door. 

“Wait! Don’t you wanna change first you -  _ sniff  _ \- Titan, you smell awful! How late were you up last night?” 

I froze at the front door just long enough to let the smell of night sweat and snack regret hit my nostrils like a semi. “Gah! You’re right, I can’t let her see me like this!” I sprinted back upstairs, running on all fours up the stairs for that extra style and speed. When I reached my room again, I gently creaked the door open and tiptoed past the sweet King, careful not to wake him. For all my speed, I wouldn’t forgive myself for waking my sweet buddy.

I threw on the first presentable and clean outfit I could find - an A shirt, an understated casual sweater colorblocked with yellow and navy; Hexside colors. I threw on a pair of mostly-clean dark jeans - and floored it out the door once again stopping briefly to give King a gentle peck on the forehead.  _ Oh! _ Nearly tripping over my own feet I swiftly turned back around and strided back over to the windowsill to grab the little trinket Eda and I found while cleaning out Lilith’s room.  _ I hope she likes it… maybe it will make for a good peace offering. _

Eda stood right where I left her, a half-cocked smile stuck on her face as she watched me half crash and half sprint down the stairs. Already huffing and nearly out of breath I stopped for a second in front of her to catch my breath. 

“Okay -  _ huff  _ \- Eda -  _ huff  _ \- I’m off -  _ huff  _ \--” 

The Owl Lady gingerly sat her mug down on the nearest surface and reached down to straighten me out. She ran her fingers through my hair a couple times to comb it out, licked her thumb, and straightened out the part in my hair. I must have looked a sight for her to stop and take the time to fix me up like this, and I’m sure the heat in my cheeks spelled out some mix of embarrassment and uncomfortable gratitude for her to see. After her adjustments, she gently but firmly gripped my shoulders and winked at me with her grey eye. 

“Have fun, kiddo.” 

Failing to contain the goofy grin that spilled out on my face, I gave her a quick hug and then spun around to make straight for the door once again. “Thanks Eda! I’ll clean my room later and - oh! Tell King he can finish off whatever’s left over from last night when you see him later!” 

“I - what? Okay!” Eda’s snorting chuckle followed me out as I flung the door open and leapt through, sprinting off down the path towards Bonesborough. “Hi Luz, bye -  _ augh! _ ” Hooty wailed as I accidentally slammed the door shut. “Okay! Jeez! Hoot! Bye!” 

I shouted my frantic apologies over my shoulder as I kept sprinting through the forest towards town, hardly paying any attention to whatever may or may not be lurking in the trees and bushes.  _ God I must be running so late!  _ I remarked to myself as I felt the increasing morning heat bear down on me through the trees.

At this point I must have made the run into Bonesborough over a hundred times but the sight of it rising over the treeline never failed to make me feel overwhelmingly giddy. I mean, I just couldn’t believe my eyes every time. A whole realm full of demons, witches, and wizards - not to mention monsters, Palismans, and all those that Eda affectionately referred to as “easy marks” - and here I am to soak it all up.  _ Me! _ Even after all this time I don’t think I ever truly ruled out the possibility that I just went completely bonkers insane and all this was a figment of my distorted imagination. And yet, ahead I went every day awe struck, terrified, and completely floored by the world of possibility around me. 

I cut through a particularly busy day at the market towards the library; shouldering past three eyed witches, demons with heads entirely made of teeth, a flesh golem carrying groceries for what I can only describe as a living marshmallow, an egg person, three little demons in a stylish trench coat, and a group of children being led on by their snake-like chaperone away from the library.  _ Crap! That must mean reading hour is already over gah crap crap crap! _

In the home stretch I basically flung myself up the stairs and slammed through the front doors - heaving myself past the threshold of Bonesborough’s premier public library. My heart beat loudly in my ears as I surveyed the foyer ahead of me, huffing loudly enough to earn me a hurried “ _ Shh _ !” from the library’s attendant. 

I hissed my apologies and took a second to compose myself, recalling the 4-7-8 breathing exercise that mom taught me. Taking on a much more casual manner, I strolled into the library and towards the Kid’s Corner, suppressing the urge to whistle casually all the while.  _ Reading hour pretty much just ended so she’s either still packing up or…  _ Peeking around the corner towards the Kid’s Corner and seeing it empty, I turned around and started making a beeline towards the young adult romance section - practically skipping with excitement. As I approached the usual bookshelf I stopped to take a look around to make sure nobody was nearby and, having been satisfied that no teens or tweens were trying to get their romantic fiction on any time soon, I gave the bookshelf a couple short raps with my knuckle, and gingerly pulled and replaced the hideout’s book-key. The door slid backwards, clicked, and then slowly slid open to reveal the surreptitious single room hideout. Well-stocked bookshelves lined the walls, neatly arranged to display only the most valued of Azura novels, magic textbooks, picture books for the young ones, and leather bound works of fanfic. Dim magic lamps hung from the rafters, taking the shape of moons, stars, and planets - casting the cozy room in a comforting glow. Turned part way around in her writing chair to watch me enter, her wry smirk illuminated by the candle that burned at her desk, was Amity Blight. 

Ever since everything went down between Eda, Lilith, and Belos - Amity has been there for me and, well, everybody. Even when Willow, Gus, and I would take turns bringing Am any notes she may have missed while laid up with her broken leg she still was always prepared with new ideas for how to rediscover new glyphs. One time she stayed up so late trying to figure out a reliable method for glyph discovery that when I went to bring her her notes and a snack, I found her still dead to the world - notes spread out all around her. After I accidentally spooked her awake by testing her notes and summoning my own humble abomination we ended up hanging out all evening talking about ideas and sharing hot goss. Looking back on it I wonder if bringing to life my own abomination might have reminded us both of our rocky start together - but I think that just made watching our own abominations do a two-left-footed tango together that much more funny and sweet.

Once Amity was able to more-or-less get around on her own and come back to class, she and I walked all the way to the Owl House together so she could try to teach the three of us magic-deprived witches what she knew, what she had been studying, and what she had been trying to figure out about glyphs on her own. Oftentimes we would just use that as an excuse to convene our two-person book club and act out some of our favorite Azura scenes, or practice our voices for the weekly Kid’s Corner reading hour. 

Am was around so much that Eda started referring to her as my “better, less spastic half” which always made the heat rise to my cheeks. Truthfully Amity was always open about the fact that she felt terrible that she wasn’t there to help prevent Eda and Lilith’s petrification, that she wasn’t there to help me protect the portal to Earth, that she couldn’t do more to help her former mentor and Eda regain their magic touch, and that the person she devoted so much of her time to - Emperor Belos - turned out to be a royal ass. I never took it for granted that she might be taking this just as hard as the rest of us. I mean, I couldn’t imagine watching your idol hurt the ones you admire or the one you… Well, regardless, I could sense the change in her. 

Sometimes, when we were poring over a failed experiment she would go really quiet and just apologize to me, for everything - as if she even had any control over any of it. Sometimes she would get so excited about a breakthrough that she would do what I could only describe as a subdued touchdown dance. And sometimes she would look at me. In the quiet moments, while the two of us were deep into Azura fanfic or when we were on the walk back to her house I would catch her staring at me, thinking I couldn’t see. At first it made me self conscious, like maybe the part in my hair looked weird or I had a seed in my teeth. But after catching on enough times it just made my head swim. The prior weekend, when I was helping her pack up from reading hour, she shot me a sideways glance that lingered just long enough for our eyes to lock and my heart beat so fast that I thought I was gonna hurl on her copy of Otabin. Every time I wrote it off that my nerves were just shot, we were all going through a lot and just trying to keep an eye on each other, and I was just reading into little things more than I should. Beside that I was just too dense and too afraid of even more change to acknowledge it in any way. But, in those quiet moments, in the passing back and forth of books and notes and bashful glances, well… like I said, I could sense the change in her. And in me, too.

Amity pushed herself up from her desk, resting one hand on her hip and one on the back of the chair as she eyed me devilishly. “You’re late, sleepyhead.” she chided softly. 

I froze, not knowing what else to do. So naturally I scrunched up my face and bowed. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry! I totally missed reading hour and I made you have to do all the voices on your own and I wasn’t here to help you clean up and --” my sputtering being cut short by Amity failing to stifle a chuckle. 

“ _ Bwahaha! _ I’m sorry it’s just - are you bowing? Come on, it’s alright. I picked a different story today with fewer voices. Besides, you know I can handle myself with those sprogs.” 

Being laid up for so long, the roots of Amity’s hair started to really show - growing long enough now to almost threaten her now fading teal locks. Her auburn and teal hair spilled lazily down to her shoulder, swept to one side for a change instead of tied up in her usual half ponytail. She wore her usual subdued cateye and her letter jacket over a casual and long black dress belted high on the waist. When I finally stood and took her in, I couldn’t help but to be a little taken aback by how nice I thought she looked.  _ Just breathe, 4-7-8 like mom showed you.  _

“Wait - did you read  _ Otabin and the Too-Big Cookie  _ without me?” I tried to distract away from the fact that my cheeks were likely some shade of pink, striding over to stand by the desk next to her, and let the panel door slide carefully closed behind me. 

“Ha - yeah but don’t worry about it. You know they’ll forget all about it in a couple weeks and we can have our do-over together.” Amity sat back down sideways in her writing chair and propped her chin against her fist, gazing up at me with wide eyes. “Honestly, you didn’t miss too much. Although Braxas was out today so you probably would have appreciated a break from that.” The thought of the sound of that kid’s voice - like something ripped straight out of  _ Doom _ \- sent a shiver up my spine, followed by a brief wave of embarrassment for being frightened by a sweet little demon kid.

“Well, that’s good at least. I’m -” I started to apologize again before I saw the realization flash on Amity’s now nonplussed face, bracing for an apology she didn’t really need to hear. “Anyway, sorry sorry sorry. King and I had kind of a late night - he swept in to save me from myself after recording for my mom.”

Amity knew about the videos I would record for my mom, and the texts I’d fail to send over the past few weeks. I never really knew how she felt about all of it but she looked at me now with a deep yearning, as if I just told her about a big, exciting party that she wasn’t invited to. 

“How are you doing now?” She asked cautiously.

“Much better, especially now that I’m here.” That made her quickly avert her gaze, quickly looking down at whatever it was she was working on before I got here. “That’s… I’m good. Glad! I’m glad!” 

A brief moment of silence passed over us, and I rocked back and forth on my heels before trying and failing to whistle something cool and casual. Glancing down at her now partially obscured notebook, I could see that she was working on some drawings that I hadn’t seen before, and frantically seized upon the topic.

“Oh hey! What were you working on before I got here?”

Amity nearly jumped at my sudden outburst before glancing up at me, her gratitude for a change in topic spelled out clearly in her eyes. “ _ Oh! _ I was just - just, uh working on some drawings.” She moved her arms and rotated the book so I could get a closer look at the doodle and immediately recognized our Azura OC: Erinna - the tall and talented grey witch rival-turned-confidante to Azura. Scrawled all over Amity’s page were various doodles of Erinna and Azura, costume and weapon designs, and Erinna’s palisman familiar: Greyhawk the edgy half-wolf half-hawk. He was a compromise character, but we were growing to love him all the same. 

“ _ Oooooh.  _ You have Greyhawk a crown. Nice touch!” My eyes lit up as I scanned the page, my mind racing as I thought of new possibilities for Erinna and Azura’s adventures. “Oh! Oh my gosh! Is that young Hecate and Erinna?”

“Oh - ha! Yeah,” Amity’s cheeks kept their shade of glowing pink “I have, uh - some ideas for backstory that maybe we can hash out later.” She looked up at me with a bashful smile and moved to stand up, reaching out for her probably magic wood crutch. “Should we get going? Emira’s uh…  _ friend  _ gave me a lead on a possible new glyph I wanna check out but first I wanna grab a bite to eat. Being harassed by a group of toddlers over the minutiae of what exactly constitutes a ‘too-big’ cookie left me feeling so hungry.”

“ _ Friend _ , eh? Wait, glyph? I didn’t realize so many people were suddenly in on the hunt.” 

“Ha, yeah well - I might have spilled to my sister what exactly we’ve been up to these last few weeks and I think she must have told her new uh,  _ best friend _ about it, too.” Amity rubbed her neck nervously when she said this, averting her eyes. I felt a hitch in my throat.  _ Hot goss! _

I raised one eyebrow at Amity and stroked my chin exaggeratedly. Humming, I pondered for a second about how to navigate this new puzzle. Finally, I said “Alright, keep your secrets. I know you’ll spill to me eventually but for now I’ll be good.” I gave Amity an amiable punch on her arm and motioned to let her lead the way.

Amity let out a sigh of relief and shot me a grateful smile before heading towards the door. We left the discrete hideout without catching the eye of any library attendees, and made our way out towards the market. Although magic healing did a lot of the heavy lifting for all injuries on the island, apparently the best cure for things like broken bones and illnesses was surprisingly mundane: time. Amity’s cast had to stay on for at least a few more weeks which usually meant slower, more ponderous walks. And more opportunities to carry Amity’s books for her. Indulging in this made me feel selfish. Like I was taking advantage of her injury for my own gain. Regardless, when the opportunity arose to basically force this witch to let me carry her books for her I often found myself literally sprinting to get to her. 

Amity and I sat on the lip of a large planter in comfortable silence in a surprisingly quiet corner of the market as we finished our lunch and demon-watched. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day; a cloudless, pale purple sky signaled the inevitable arrival of a cool and clear late summer evening. With students out of class for the day the market was buzzing with energy and the night market vendors were already busy getting a head start staking out their spots to hock their wares. Tiny Nose even made a brief appearance before having to be ushered off by her bodyguards after being swarmed by adoring fans of YA fiction. 

“I helped her escape from prison once.” I murmured. 

“Sorry - what?” Amity responded, looking up from a particularly entertaining kid fight on the far end of the market square.

“Ah, it’s nothing.” I let the contented silence extend between us before finally swooping in for the kill.

“Sooooo. Ms. Blight. Amity. Ams? Can I call you Ams?”

Amity’s head snapped around to gawk at me, her golden eyes shimmering and her cheeks rosy. “ _ What? _ Y-Yes? Yes you can call me tha--”

Intentionally cutting her off, I plowed ahead. I had decided that I had bided my time long enough, and it was time for some clarity. I leaned in closer, giving Amity my best attempt at the most irresistible gaze I could muster; one eyebrow raised, heavy lidded eyes, a knowing smile - the works. “Amity. There’s something you’ve been hiding from me and I’m ready to hear you spill.” 

Amity’s only response was something between a choke and a squeak. I knew I had hit my mark. “When are you going to tell me about Emira’s… what did you call them?  _ Friend?  _ You see, in order to best pursue this mission--” 

Amity cut me off by utterly deflating; exhaling a long and loud groan while slumping back onto the planter we both sat on. I could see her face was still beet red while she lay on her back, gazing up at the sky with the same wide-eyed expression she shared with me not long before. “Titan, Luz you almost gave me a heart attack. I thought - you know what, nevermind.” She started cackling uncharacteristically. “ _ Haha! _ I mean, Ams -  _ Ams -  _ who would? I mean - I, no -  _ Ha!  _ \- I mean, you could --”

“Amity?” I recoiled a bit, heat rising in my face. I couldn’t help but feel my lips reflexively curve into a goofy grin despite my best efforts. I knew I was hitting a nerve on the whole  _ Emira’s Suitor  _ question but I really didn’t expect to see her unravel like this. Her frantic sputtering mellowed into something more of a subdued muttering when I decided to reach out and rest my hand on her upper arm. “Am, you good?” I said softly.

Much to my surprise, Amity looked genuinely calmed by a gentle touch, and rose once again. She hid her face from me with her loose bangs, giving a quick “A- _ hem! _ ” before turning back to me with an exaggerated grin. “Yup! Yeap - completely fine. So you wanted to talk about something entirely different right?  _ Haha,  _ like uh - I’m, er. Emira.” Realizing she was babbling again, she quickly clasped her hand against her mouth. For her sake I pressed on. 

“So you were telling me earlier that you found out about a potential new glyph from one of Emira’s  _ friends _ . Heavy emphasis on the  _ friend. _ Amity. I must know.” I brought my legs up onto the lip of the planter and turned to face Amity so that my legs were pulled up against my chest, and I shot her an intense look over my knees, making her chuckle.

“Yeah, alright, alright. Put away the detective eyes there Hemlock Bones.” I decided not to press her on the clearly bizarre and maybe anachronistic reference, instead allowing her to continue. Suddenly she quickly leaned forward, brought her face close, and gave me an intense look with furrowed brows. “But you need to promise me something. You will not tell anyone - _anyone_ _-_ what I’m about to tell you right now. _Especially_ not Emira. Okay? I have to share a roof with her and you… well you don’t know what it’s like.” She shuddered at that last remark. 

I lowered my legs back down and sat with my back straight, raised my left hand, and put my right over my heart. Deciding to take the bit one step forward, I rose to my feet and lowered down on one knee in front of Amity who looked surprised by the gesture. “Amity Blight,” I began, “I vow to you this: I will not spill, confess, divulge, reveal, or any other synonym any of this information. You have my full confidence. So help me uhh…” At some point I had closed my eyes during my show, and peeked at her now with one eye. She slouched forward now, elbows resting on her knees, and gazed at me with a sweet half smile. Clearly I wasn’t expecting her to be as close as she now was, as my throat seized up right at the grand finale. “... Titan.” I managed to eke out.

“Luz Noceda, you’re one of a kind.” She chided, not unkindly. Then she sighed. “Alright. It was Viney. You know, the gal on the beast keeping and healer tracks?”

“Wait, wait.  _ That  _ Viney? Viney and your sister are--” 

“ _ Shh! _ Not so loud, alright? And I don’t know for sure but… well, let’s just say that I’ve been doing Emira a favor lately by not ratting her out when she sneaks out at night.” Amity leaned in a little closer, clearly enjoying this. “And let’s also say that maybe I saw her wearing a nightshirt the other day that I swore I had never seen before but clearly looked well-loved and well-worn.  _ And _ , bear with me now, I saw  _ Viney  _ wearing Emira’s choker. She and I got matching ones, I would know it anywhere.”

Utterly transfixed, I waited for the  _ coup de grace _ . Instead, Amity sat with her back straight and crossed her arms, smiling triumphantly. Hesitantly, I prodded more. “So… no, like, definitive proof then?” 

Amity slouched forward again, her expression neutralizing for a moment before taking on a semblance of its intensity from before. “Oh.  _ Well _ , you see, I pressed Emira about it and she told me that if I told anyone about it that she would, well. Alright, blackmail is, uhh…” She stammered, “okay, she basically all but confirmed it. Besides, the other day Viney came up to me out of the blue to talk to me about glyph research. Do you know that I’ve never shared more than ten words with her in the past? So either word  _ really  _ gets around, or uhh, word…  _ really…  _ gets around. Eh?” She raised her eyebrows at me, repeatedly.

“You lost me. But! I think I understand.  _ Ha! _ ” I relaxed my shoulders and sighed contentedly, picturing the two of them riding off into moonrise on Puddles’ back. Always a sucker for a good love story.  _ Never mind that now, the glyph! _ I shook myself back into the real world, wherein Amity stared at me with clear concern on her face. 

“The glyph! Wait -  _ blackmail? _ ” I once again leaned in, and raised an eyebrow at an increasingly irritated Amity Blight. “Alright, alright, forget it. The  _ glyph! _ What did Viney say?”

“She told me about a possible healing glyph basically hidden in plain sight. She said it looked rather similar to some other glyphs she had seen around school and in our notes. Again, no clue how or why she’s privy to all that but we’re pushing past it.” She said, holding up hand to stave off any further prodding. “Anyway. Should we go see if she’s right?” 

Amity and I rose, locked eyes, and nodded. “Right behind you, Am.” At this, blush rose to Amity’s cheeks but her determined look didn’t falter. 

“Let’s go.”

We set off together towards the center of town. Buildings in this quarter began to take on a surprisingly different look than the majority of Bonesborough; clearly older, clearly more in-tune with their demonic heritage. Multi-story buildings made entirely of shimmering bone, tumble-down hamlets that heaved like breathing chests as people walked by, cottages that seemed to always be oozing, craftsman-style single family homes that watched you pass with beady eyes where its windows were supposed to be - all supposedly a reflection of natural, demonic growth during the Savage Ages. 

In a nondescript residential street not too far from Glandus High sat a squat, rough-hewn stone building crumbling from years of neglect. To any passer-by, it would just look like an abandoned workshop; completely mundane, no blinking eyes or frog skin stucco, just a normal, crumbling building. Plants had long since taken over, multicolored vines weaving in and out of windows and filling any available nooks. Nothing visible foretold anything about the buildings’ purpose or history except for one underwhelming stone tablet - about four feet wide as it was tall - half-obscured by tall razor grass. 

Amity guided me to the edge of the walkway where the path to the “front” of the building began, gesturing vaguely at the mess in front of us - clearly unconvinced. The walk out here wasn’t exceedingly long but I could tell that the distance on crutches had to have been pretty taxing as Amity eyed for a comfortable spot to sit down, leaning against her crutch for support. “Well,” she said, sighing “here it is. When Viney said ‘hidden in plain sight’ she wasn’t kidding.” 

I began to pace around to see if there was any way inside the building that wouldn’t involve getting too familiar with Bonesborough’s urban flora, before quickly giving up. The place was closely hemmed in on both sides by more recently constructed, still occupied buildings; clearly homes that didn’t mind staking a claim next to an ancient rubble pile. The path to the front door was obscured by a long-since deteriorated border wall and the door itself, from what I could see, opened up into a collapsed roof anyway. “What even is this place?” I asked as I turned back to Amity, now resting her chin on her crutch, shifting her weight to her good foot.

“Supposedly it was the teaching clinic that would later become St. Epiderm. That, or it was once a part of Glandus High’s medical track facility? Or the school that existed before Glandus? Viney wasn’t sure about the details but she seemed to be pretty convinced that it was a legitimate source of healing magic knowledge.” Amity explained, mustering herself to take a closer look as well.

“I would assume a good deal of Glandus students have to walk past this every day - I’m surprised there isn’t like, a ‘national marker of historic places’ placard or something.” To my surprise Amity didn’t comment on my anatopism, instead moving towards the tablet. She seemed to contemplate simply trying to flatten out the razor grass with her crutch before eventually sighing, drawing a delicate circle in the air, and summoning a small purple flame. With surprising deft, she wound her arm back and slashed at the air with her open palm, low to the base of the tablet. The fire took on the properties of a blade as she waved her palm and the grass was quickly brought low, leaving the tablet unscathed.

“ _ Woah! _ Amity! Nice one!” 

Amity shot me an amiable wink over her shoulder before motioning for me to stand next to her. “Look at this - I studied a bit of ancient script last semester so I can just about make out the wording on the tablet. All I can tell is that what Viney heard was right: this was clearly some kind of ancient clinic.” As she motioned to point at the script, I could clearly see where she was getting all that, even if I didn’t understand it myself. On the tablet was some sort of written language I had no experience with but arranged in such a way that would clearly let someone know at-a-glance what purpose the building served. Still, even looking closely at individual symbols I couldn’t see anything that looked even remotely  _ glyph-like.  _ I crouched, staring blankly at the symbols as Amity read aloud what she could. Exasperated and clearly outmatched by Am’s studies, I took an uneven step back and spun on my heel, groaning.

“ _ Guh,  _ Amity I don’t get it. This is just some bunk dentist’s office or whatever. I really doubt they would, like, have long-forgotten magic runes painted next to their office hours.”

Huffing, Amity stood back up as well after closely reading the script and walked back over to me. She gave me an apologetic look and rested her free hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry Luz… it was worth a look, at least.” 

Taking in the sign one last time, the pattern began to make itself clear to me. The actual meaning and makeup of the words in the sign were, in fact, irrelevant to the way they were arranged. They were arranged in the shape of a glyph, and it nearly shimmered in the light as I gazed at it now. Amity must have noticed it as well as we both looked at each other with newfound excitement. She gave my shoulder a squeeze before allowing me to take out my notepad and pen to write down the glyph. 

A circle enclosed a vertical wave, almost snake-like, with an enclosed dot at the top. Intersecting the wave were two perpendicular stripes, somewhat resembling bandages, and in the free space in the upper corners were two small spirals - merely filigree on the sign. I steadily drew the symbol on the page, took a deep breath and gave it a tap. The entire page seemed to melt away like powdered medicine being dissolved in warm water and then… nothing. 

“Well, we know it’s a glyph at least. It would make sense that it doesn’t really do anything on its own… healing spells need something to heal, I guess. Right?” Amity crouched down, steading herself on her crutch. “What do you think?” 

As I rose, Am rose with me, and I couldn’t hide my excitement any longer. A steady, low squeal erupted into a cry of elation as I threw my arms around my teal and auburn haired partner-in-crime, hardly mindful of all of her injury. Amity completely tensed up, steadying herself on her crutch, and seemed to shudder when I gripped tighter. “ _ Amity! Amity!  _ Do you know what this means? We learned a  _ new spell! _ ” I pulled away from her but kept my grip on her shoulders as I met her gaze. “Viney is going to flip out, she found such a cool… Amity?”

Amity had reflexively reached her free hand up my arm and while I expected for her to be pushing me away by now instead she just rested her fingertips on my forearm. The expression on her face was completely delirious: eyes wide and staring, lips parted, eyebrows visibly shaking, and beads of sweat visibly gathering on her forehead. “ _ Mierda,  _ Amity I’m so, so sorry! Did I hurt your foot again  _ dammit! _ Amity I’m so sorry!” Frantically I backed away, but kept my arms extended in case she needed some extra support. Still, the fingertips on her free hand continued to just barely brush along my arm before she finally came to and gripped onto my shirt sleeve.

“ _ Haha!  _ Nope, completely fine I just - ahh. It’s cool. I’m cool.” She squared her stance, shifted nervously, and tried to play it off like she was about to fall over but caught herself. All the while she muttered anxiously about not even “knowing who this ‘Amity’ person is.” Knowing that we got what we came here for and knowing what it was that we both needed now, I nodded in assurance to Am and began jotting down the glyph several times on multiple sheets of paper before stowing my notepad and turning back to my partner. “Alright. Let’s go try it out.” I instinctively reached for her hand but quickly decided that pulling her all the way through Bonesborough by her wrist would be a potentially disastrous idea.  _ Maybe she would let me give her a piggy-back ride? No... Carry her like that day on the grudgby field? No. No no.  _ We both stood for a moment in silence, Amity clearly trying to play things cool and myself trying to stave off impulsive thoughts - hot blush on our cheeks alluding to both our failure. I cleared my throat one last time. “Let’s go.”

We started walking back to the market in relative silence, breaking it only to discuss which streets or alleys to take as we more-or-less retraced our steps. The sun began its descent through the striking purple sky, now just starting to brush the tips of the Titan’s horns. Amity and I both quietly knew that we would have to plan our next move carefully. Neither one of us wanted to admit it, but the day was coming to a close and that meant our parting ways was fast approaching. Our pace back to the market was even slower than usual and as such we made the time to really soak in our surroundings. Or, at least make a valiant attempt. Finally, as we approached the market square and laid eyes on the planter where our afternoon mission began, Amity broke the comfortable silence.

“So. You said you wanted to test the healing glyph out. What did you have in mind?” She slowed to a halt in front of the planter. Taking a second to think out how to broach the topic of our next step, I gazed up at the tree in the planter. It reminded me straight away of the tree Amity and I ‘planted’ on Grom night. I couldn’t help but to crack a wistful smile as I watched pink leaves float delicately on the wind. When I looked back over at Amity I felt as though I saw her realize the same thing as she too watched leaves trace the path of the evening breeze. Finally, I decided that I didn’t want our mission to end just yet.

“Yeah. I have a couple ideas, wanna hear ‘em?” 

“Go ahead.” Amity said, looking back at me. I swallowed hard, trying to clear the hitch in my throat.

“A- _ hem _ . Alright. So, first I think we should find somewhere more private before it gets too chilly - and so we can avoid the attention of any nosy onlookers looking to catch some bad witches practicing forbidden magics.” I waggled my fingers menacingly, making Amity chuckle. “Then, I was thinking… you’ve gotten pretty good at that fire spell, so why don’t we see if we can undo any damage it does to my arm by using the --”

“No.” Amity cut me off curtly, before giving me a concerned look. “Luz, I’m not going to intentionally burn you just so we can prove a theory. If something went wrong and I did some serious damage, I just… well, I don’t think I would deal very well.”

“Okay, okay! No worries just - just don’t rule it out yet, okay? That just leaves my other idea, and more reason why we should find a warm place to sit.” I glanced down at her cast.

Sensing my motivation, Amity also glanced down at her bad leg before looking up at me with wild eyes and a concerned look. “You want to… try it out on my leg?” I nodded emphatically, bouncing on my heels with excitement.

“ _ Yes! _ Think about it, your leg is already on the mend - I highly doubt a clinic would have a glyph of wounding on their welcome sign.” I pondered at this for a moment. “Wait… do you think some ancient demon clinic would put a sign of  _ wounding _ for their clinic?”

Amity burst out laughing at this. “ _ Bwahaha! _ You know, now that you think of it… I have no idea.” Then, she gave me a determined nod. “But you’re right. Why not? It’s not like trying out a healing glyph could make it any worse. And if it does, well, I’ll just make you carry me back to the hospital.” I blushed at this, frozen in place. There’s nothing I wanted less than to hurt Amity, but the way she phrased that made me choke.  _ Let me? _

Amity came to my rescue. “Come on, dork. Let’s give it a try. To the Owl House?” Without waiting for a response, she beckoned me to join her and started off in that direction. 

We hurried back to  _ chateau de Clawthorne _ nearly as fast as we could manage, cracking jokes about the worst possible things that could happen if we tried this glyph on one of us and it went horribly wrong. At one point Amity spun a yarn about her foot becoming a new Titan that she could use to kick Belos back to whatever realm he crawled out of, which we decided to file away as a potential “Plan F” for getting back at the Emperor. By the time we got back, dusk was beginning to settle into the darkest part of night - just before moonrise - and Hooty inelegantly greeted us well before we could even see the house. 

“ _ Hoot!  _ I mean,  _ halt!  _ Be you friend? Or  _ foe? _ ” the shrill voice squawked. Even in the growing dark I could see that his neck was extended quite aways, bending around several trees, wrapped around branches, and even dipping through the ground at one point. He still had dirt around his beak, inexplicably.

I rolled my eyes at him. “ _ Friend _ , Hooty. C’mon, you really gonna forget a face like this?” I gave Hooty a little flourish, spinning around on my toes before grinning madly at him, arms outstretched. I could hear Amity giggle at this from over my shoulder, but Hooty just eyed me suspiciously.

“Hmmm… alright. But if you’re the  _ real  _ Luz, then answer me this: what is my  _ real name? _ ” Hooty shot forward, his face mere inches from my own. I could feel dirt lightly spray my face as he grilled me.

__ I contemplated this for a second, running the risk of potentially overthinking Hooty’s…  _ situation…  _ before going with my gut. “Is it Hooty?”

Hooty’s intense gaze immediately morphed into a relieved and goofy grin. “Correct! Phew, I thought I was going to have to suplex my own best friend. Sorry about that Luz! Can’t be too careful these days, y’know?” 

I rolled my eyes at this as Hooty receded quickly back home, hitting his head on several branches, dipping back through the ground, and unwinding himself from his various trees. Still, he was right, you really could not be too careful these days and, truthfully, I had been far too callous with my walks through these woods. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a prepared light glyph, illuminating the last little bit of path home. Amity shot me a knowing smile, perhaps a little grateful that the ground was better lit, and we carried on the rest of the way.

The Owl House was surprisingly quiet considering how packed it had been lately. Candles burned low on the tables and mantles, casting a low, sleepy light throughout the main room. King quietly snored as he slept curled up on the couch, and I could hear the sounds of Eda and Lilith talking from Eda’s nest room upstairs - and although I couldn’t make any details out I could easily make out their raucous laughter nearly shaking the floorboards. I ushered Amity into the house and offered to help her up the stairs, briefly stooping to give King a tiny scritch on his neck before carrying on up the stairs. It wasn’t until we were both only a few paces away from my room that the gravity of my situation finally dawned on me. 

I yelled out in panic, but screamed internally. “ _ Amity wait! _ ” I nearly bowled her over as I rushed to get ahead of her.  _ I forgot my room looks like a rat’s nest!  _ Balking at my own prejudice against rats, I paused briefly in front of the door to my room panting wildly and completely unable to hear any of Amity’s protestations. “Uhh… okay. Just wait here a moment!” I shot her an apologetic smile before opening the door just wide enough for me to slip through. Through the crack I could still hear Amity in the middle of saying “Luz, come on there’s no way it’s that bad, do you know who my siblings are? And also --” As I stepped through, I was met with the absolute very last thing I expected to find under this roof. A totally clean room - even cleaner than it was the night before our snack raid. The floors were swept and apparently mopped, my clothes were semi-neatly piled in the corner, my chest was closed, and my bed was entirely free of chip dust. And on my pillow sat a note with harshly scrawled red handwriting followed by a signature greasy paw mark that I’d become accustomed to in these last few months. 

“You owe me one! - King”

Amity must have heard my dramatic sigh of relief for she now peeked her head through the door. “Luz, what is the big deal? Oh come on, you were worried about this?” She came through the door now and motioned towards my clothes pile with her free hand.

“ _ Ha! _ No, no it was… well it’s nothing now. Come in!” 

With a flourish, I beckoned her inside and repositioned a few pillows for her to sit on with one placed strategically to support her foot. Amity let out a small gasp as I rushed past her to push the door slightly closed, and then urged her further in with my hand on the small of her back. “Please, please! Take a seat Ms. Amity Blight, I’m told the nurse will be right with you!”

Amity giggled sweetly and indulged me. “ _ Well _ , thank you! I say, the service here is really something!” She allowed me to take her crutch from her and gave a little curtsey before plopping down unceremoniously on the pillow pile I arranged for her. As she was making herself comfortable, I was a flurry of activity - lighting more candles, cracking open the window, donning my cape, and even diving into my clothes chest before reemerging with my doctor's head mirror loosely fashioned to my forehead. I stood over her triumphantly. “The doctor… is  _ in! _ ” 

I awaited some sort of reaction, standing with my hands on my hips and staring off into the distance, but was met with only silence. “You… are such a dork.” Amity said, quietly and piteously chuckling. My shoulders slumped and I gave a surreptitious little shrug before sitting on the floor next to her. “Eh, it was worth a shot.” I retorted.

Amity averted her gaze and twiddled her thumbs in her lap while I drummed out an inconsistent beat on my knees. Clearly, this was not where either of us expected the day to end and neither one of us really knew how to carry onwards. Briefly I got distracted by the way the ambient candlelight caught the teal in her hair, making her loosely flowing locks look entirely auburn in the flickering light. I swallowed hard, feeling my heart jump in my throat, and accidentally caught Am’s attention.

“ _ Haha! So! _ ” I wailed far too loud, and cleared my throat. “So. Uhh…” I cast my eyes about and rubbed my neck as Amity averted her gaze again. “Oh wait, Amity what do we do about your cast?” I felt a sudden pang of panic, used to the usual Earth casts that had to be literally sawed away from your leg. 

“ _ Oh! _ Watch this.” Amity reached down and pinched around where her big toe might have been, and then gave her cast a tickle. Two eyes opened up towards the end of the solidified bandage, and the cast began to literally peel away, unraveling like a snake. The now much more animated cast shot us both a sleepy look before taking the hint and slithering out the window. 

“Oh. Well. I guess that settles that… looks like this better work!” I decided not to acknowledge what we just watched. Amity winced with pain as she rested her foot on the pillow, and rested her back against the wall. 

“Alright, Dr. Noceda. What’s the prognosis?” She said wryly. I reached into my pocket to retrieve my little notepad, then reaching for my full-size notebook. If this glyph was anything like the ice and plant glyphs I already knew, then a bigger sized sheet of paper would likely have a bigger effect… hopefully. I took a deep breath, trying to hide my shaking hand as I carefully drew out the healing glyph. Suddenly the pressure of being expected to heal an entire foot with a drawing I just learned about only hours ago grew to be unbearable. I wanted nothing more than to laugh it off and suggest we try another day, but we were past the point of no return. 

“Do you trust me?” I asked her, shakily, unsure of why I even needed the reassurance. Am only nodded her head at me, eyes sparkling in the flickering light.

I took the plunge, ripping the page out of the notebook and carefully setting it on Amity’s leg. I took a deep breath, avoiding eye contact with Am, and muttered reassurances to myself. “You got this.” She whispered to me. I finished wrapping the page around her leg and gave the dotted ‘head’ of the glyph a light tap with my finger. 

The page glowed a pale blue before dissolving, the ambient light of the magic briefly illuminating the whole room as the glyph slowly disappeared. Amity gasped and my eyes immediately darted to see her reactions, bracing for the worst. She winced briefly, and tensed her whole body in anticipation. Then, as the page finished working its magic, silence ensued. We sat for a moment, me watching Amity’s face as she tried to decide if it worked. She glanced at me briefly, a puzzled look on her face, and then back down at her foot. Then, she wiggled her toes. 

“Well?” I asked desperately.

Amity’s face flashed several emotions: anticipation, bracing, confusion, then finally she smiled wide. She looked at me now, eyes shining and grinning ear to ear. The sweet sound of her laugh erupted from her lips as she sprung forward, throwing her arms around my shoulders. I froze in place for a moment before returning her embrace, my heart beating wildly. We sat there for a moment holding each other in an extended embrace, laughing and struggling to catch our breath. Amity leaned back and gazed into my eyes, making me feel painfully aware of the heat in my face and the pounding drums in my chest. 

“Luz, I think you just healed my foot.” She chuckled again. “Thank you… I mean, really. Thank you. I didn’t really know what to expect from Viney’s tip but, well… anyway. I can’t believe this.” She sat back and sighed, kicking her now healed leg in the air a couple times - more or less the best sort of stress test one could do while still sitting. 

“Honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to figure any of this out without you. Viney too, obviously. But we figured this out together.” A squeal erupted from deep within my chest. “ _ How cool is that! _ ” I did a little dance before reflexively resting my hand on Amity’s leg, just below the knee. She blushed and looked away, chuckling softly. 

“ _ Oh!  _ Oh my gosh, Amity - what are you going to tell your parents? They’re gonna expect you to come home with a cast, a broken foot, a crutch - the whole shebang!” I gasped, casting my eyes around wildly to search for a possible solution.  _ Maybe I can like, paper mache a quick cast?  _

Amity only chuckled. “I’m just gonna tell them the truth. That we figured out a new spell to try out and now my foot is feeling much better.” She smiled warmly at me. “Although… I am probably going to need to borrow a shoe to get home… if you don’t mind.” 

“Amity Blight I would be honored to share my shoes with you.  _ Crap! _ I almost completely forgot!” I quickly reached into my pocket to reach for the gift I’d been carrying around all day. I pulled it out carefully, eyeing it surreptitiously before bashfully holding it out towards Am, unsure if this was the right move at the right time. “This is, uh… for you. I found it while we were cleaning out one of Eda’s human knick-knack hordes and it, well… reminded me… of you?” 

She carefully grabbed it from my hand and eyed it, moving it into the light to get a better look. It was a ballpoint pen, auburn and white with a hand grip the color of young bamboo. Upon the pen top sat a cute little red panda, its legs crossed and its eyes shimmering black. “That’s a red panda, from Earth. Well regarded on the internet as one of the premier cutest animals, you’ll be pleased to know!”

“This… reminded you of me?”

Frantically my mind raced to put the pieces together: was this okay? Did I make the right choice?  _ Crap! I just compared Amity - Amity! - to an animal! I mean sure, a really cute animal but - oh wait, is that the problem? Oh my god did I just make things --  _ I stared slack jawed, unable to speak, with a lump in my throat. Amity chuckled sweetly. 

“This is really sweet, Luz. Thank you.” She smiled, gazing down at the pen again. “One of the  _ premier _ cutest animals, you say?” She gazed up at me with a wicked grin, making my heart skip.

“ _ Haha!  _ Okay, well when you put it that way uhh... Ah! Let me find you some shoes.” I shot up, glancing around frantically and tapping my foot wildly, less searching for shoes and more attempting to hide from the can of worms I just opened. Amity only laughed, and stood up with me, carefully testing weight on her now presumably healed foot before gazing back at me. She rested a hand on my shoulder. 

“Seriously, this was very sweet. Thank you.” She smiled warmly, and I felt much more calm by her touch. I resisted the urge to lean into her warmth, instead choosing the colder, but more responsible decision. 

“I’m glad.” I returned her smile and stooped to grab my spare skate shoes and a pair of clean socks. “I should probably get you home. It’s getting late and I don’t want your parents to worry.” She sighed wistfully, and nodded her assent. We sat in silence for a moment as she gathered her things, including her now rather pointless crutch. We stood for a moment by door, unwilling to take the next steps out into the cold. 

“You know… I had a really good day with you today, Luz. Thank you.” She smiled sweetly at me, coloring my face pink once again. We savored the moment together in comfortable silence one last time, and then we set off together into the night towards Blight manor.


	2. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity catches up with her family. Boscha looks to settle a score.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some CW: cursing, blood, broken bones, difficulty breathing. Hopefully that covers it all but if I missed anything pertinent please let me know!
> 
> Little bit of a longer one this time, and had a little bit of difficulty with this chapter especially. The next chapter or two will probably be a little bit shorter as I want to dive into a couple bonus POV's away from Luz and Amity. Can't say the third act will dictate the overall tone of the fic going forward but I definitely wanted to set some things up. Hopefully it didn't get too spicy.
> 
> Hit lots of different notes in this chapter and here's a bit of what I listened to while writing it that I think captures the vibe, if you're interested :)  
> https://lomelda.bandcamp.com/track/reach  
> https://soundcloud.com/sewerslvt/i-really-like-you-pt1
> 
> Thanks for reading! :)

_ Amity _

I pulled my jacket closed tighter in an attempt to ward off the cold breeze that cut through the night air - revealing how unprepared I was for the sudden drop in temperature. Pale blue clouds swirled in the sky, partially obscuring the all-seeing moon. I groaned at it as it looked down on me now, seeming to judge me as I stood frozen at the gates of Blight Manor. Luz and I had long since said our reluctant goodbyes when we first reached the manor gates and now I stood there in cold silence pondering my next steps. I carefully considered every step I would have to take for the next few days, pacing back and forth along the tree lined path. 

Dad wouldn’t be a problem, he had been too busy with work the last few… well, years, to even notice or care - deferring nearly all things parenting to my mom and siblings. Edric and Emira presented more of a puzzle: a delicate balancing act of blackmail, plays and counter plays, and the ever-present threat of payback. Truthfully, things had become much more civil - warm, even - between the three of us over the last several weeks and months but, still, it never hurt to have a contingency plan in place in case one of them chose their allegiances incorrectly. Mom presented the real challenge.

I took a sharp breath in and huffed loudly, squaring my stance in front of the gate and regarded the signage one last time.  _ Blight Manor _ . Rolling my eyes at the ostentatiousness, I walked around to the side of the gate with the low wall, gingerly stepping over it to avoid any further mishaps with my foot. As I walked up the stairs towards the manor, I regarded its facade and tried to feel out my next step.  _ It looks like Edric is in his room, Emira must be out, or asleep… the lights are all out downstairs which means dad is probably at work and mom is in bed. Wait is that a…  _ I froze for a moment when my eyes landed on the window that faced into my room. A gentle, flickering light shone through the crack in the partially closed curtain. Swallowing hard and clutching my crutch to my chest, I picked up the pace and broke out into a trot across the lawn.  _ I left early enough to beat the sun but I know for a fact that I would never - ever - leave a candle burning all day. _ My mind raced with all the possible scenarios as I reached the base of the manor and gazed up at the ledge of the window. I checked my footing and began drawing a spell circle, preparing a simple floating spell. The soft rustling of grass from a long shadow gave me pause. I stopped mid-circle, the half-completed purple circle dissolving into air. I snapped my head around, gazing at the now growing shadow emerging from my periphery.

“Amity, Amity, Amity…” 

The voice was familiar, mocking, and smarmy. And yet, even knowing its familiarity, I failed to stifle a yelp before throwing my crutch back and nearly slipping on the now dew-covered grass. 

“ _ Titan _ , Edric you could have killed me! What the fuck!”

Edric Blight emerged out of the obscuring shadow casually, a smirk plastered on his face as he regarded me in my panicked state. His kelly green hair glinted in the moonlight as he stood over me now and his long, olive green cardigan flowed gently in the breeze. Moonlight caught the tips of his evidently freshly-painted fingernails as he fanned his face with exaggerated smarm. Even in the blanket of night I could see the glimmer in his eye that let me know that he was enjoying and, perhaps, had been waiting all night for this.

“Oh,  _ sorry _ Amity! Didn’t mean to startle you. After all I hardly expected to find sweet Mittens to be the one crawling home to her beloved family at such a late hour.” He clapped his hands to his cheeks, feigning shock and concern. 

“Shove it, Edric. Like you’re any better, anyway.” I stooped to brush the dew off the skirt of my dress before squaring up to my obnoxious sibling. “Besides, you know I had plans today. Wait, were you sitting here waiting to ambush me all night?”

“Wha-? Oh,  _ ha! _ No, I was actually just popping out to see if I could get the jump on Emira. Imagine my surprise, then, to see Little Miss Perfect come sneaking down the lawn.” Edric chuckled, relaxing a bit.

“Alright, laugh it up, Ed. You caught me.” I chided, casually leaning on my crutch. I watched as his eyes lit up at this, glancing at the crutch before gawking down at my foot now fitted only with a mismatched colorful sneaker. He clapped his hand against the side of his head before wordlessly pointing down at my foot.

Reflexively I hugged my crutch against my chest and stammered, “I--  _ okay _ , look, Ed I can explain,” I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks as the gravity of my actions hit me with their full weight.  _ Crap, explaining this is going to be a lot harder than I thought. _

“Your  _ foot! _ Y- your  _ leg! _ Amity what --” 

I dropped the crutch and reached out, panic stricken, clapping my hand over Edric’s mouth - afraid that either of our parents would be woken up by his braying. We stood there with locked eyes for a moment, his eyes wide and practically screaming at me for answers. I kept my hand over his mouth until I was satisfied that he would be quiet. After a moment I could feel the palm of my hand steadily getting more wet. Immediately upon realizing this I snatched my hand back as Edric failed to stifle a cackle. 

“ _ Ugh, _ what the fuck, Ed! Disgusting!” I wiped his spit off my hand onto his cardigan and shot him another glare. “And keep it down! It’s all fun and hilarious until mom catches us both outside and rains fire down on us.” 

Ed wiped tears from his eyes as he finally pulled himself together, then just gave me a halfhearted shrug. “I wouldn’t worry too much about either of them - dad’s out  _ again  _ and mom wore herself out doing meal prep for the week. She’s been passed out for a while now.”

I let myself relax at this and crossed my arms, still scrunching up my face at Ed. It sounded right, at least - lately dad had been working longer and later shifts doing Titan knows what for the Emperor’s Coven while mom picked up the slack with the three of us at home. It wasn’t their usual dynamic and they both did their best to hide their recent stress but we could all see and feel the toll being taken on both of them for all the long hours and often days apart from each other.

“Anyway,  _ Mittens _ , why don’t you tell me what exactly you did to your leg?” Edric tapped his foot and gazed at me now with knitted brows and a bemused glimmer in his eye. He reminded me a lot of Principal Bump, in fact, looking like he just caught a student abusing their magic but couldn’t hide just how impressed he was by the method. I glanced up at the sky and shivered, before hugging myself. 

“Alright, alright. Can we take this inside, though? I give, you thoroughly pranked me  _ o great and clever king of stealth _ . But it’s freezing out here and I want to take off these mismatched shoes.”

Ed huffed with pride, at once recognizing my sarcasm but choosing to take it as a compliment anyway. “ _ Well _ , butter me up why don't ya? Alright sis, your wish is my command.” He stood up straighter before pressing his palms together, tracing out a wide spell circle with both hands. We were both briefly illuminated in a pale blue glow before gently being lifted off the ground. I could feel my stomach drop as we quickly picked up speed, causing me to instinctively roll my eyes at him.

“We could have just gone through the front door, you know.  _ And  _ you forgot my crutch.”

“Aw, lighten up Mittens. You know this is way more fun. And besides, I have a feeling you’re about to tell me you won’t be needing it anymore anyway, so why not just leave it until morning.” He mocked sweetly as we slowed to approach my window. 

I moved quickly to open it first and clamber through, briefly considering the possibility of locking him out before deciding against it.  _ Better to stay on his good side… for tonight, at least. _ I ducked through the now open window and pulled the curtains aside to allow him easy passage as well. 

“So polite! Thanks, sis!” He ruffled my hair as he ducked through before roughly using my head for support as he did. I could feel the heat rise dramatically in my face as I once again forced myself to defer to my better judgement by subduing the urge to shove him back through the window. I shoved him off me once I was satisfied he was all the way through the window before quickly moving ahead of him to ensure that my door was latched shut. I took a deep breath, bracing myself before spinning to face him as he leaned casually against my desk. 

“So. Let me guess - that tip Viney gave you actually panned out?” Edric tapped his chin with his finger, eyeing me curiously. I could only groan in response.

“Jeez, Ed, you knew about  _ that  _ too? I’m really starting to wonder how anybody keeps any secrets in this house.” I sighed as I kicked off my mismatched shoes. The sight of them together - Luz’s colorful blue and pink sneaker next to my simple black heel, side by side - gave me pause. I couldn’t help but to smile at the sight of them for the briefest of moments before snapping myself out of my stupor.  _ Oh for crying out loud, Amity - they’re just shoes. Pull yourself together. _ I threw my jacket off onto the bed before sitting down on the edge of it to face Edric.

“Oh, Mittens. Nobody keeps any secrets in this house. Especially not from me. Besides, Em told me all about last night after I caught her getting dropped off by Viney.” He stressed the last part with exaggerated excitement as if he had been carrying that bit of gossip around all day and could hardly wait to spill it. 

I couldn’t help but to blush at this, a twinge of inexplicable pain hitting my chest. I had always understood why the twins were and would always be closer to each other than anyone else, but at times it sincerely hurt to be constantly out-of-the-loop when it came to their lives.  _ I suppose I only really have myself to blame for that, anyway.  _ I had spent years pushing them away, telling on them for their screw-ups and cut corners, and generally making their lives a living hell for the crime of making me the butt of all their jokes - which always just incensed them to lay it on even thicker. The feeling of guilt was fleeting, anyway, followed by the feeling of sweet warmth as I pictured Em and Viney flying in together on Puddles’ back. I pictured them holding hands.  _ Amity Blight. Pull yourself together, you lovesick dork. _

“ _ An- anyway _ ,” I stammered, “if you must know, yes. It worked out… great. I mean, check it out!” I held out my foot to him and posed it left, then right. Then I kicked the air with  _ gusto _ . “Luz and I figured out it probably had something to do with healing and decided to try it out. Slapping it on my broken foot seemed like a no-brainer.”

Edric grinned wide at me, pride clearly spelled out on his face. “Mittens, that’s amazing. I mean, what are the odds, right? Even the healing coven’s magic at St. Epiderm isn’t  _ that _ good.”

“Yeah… I’ve been wondering about that. Do you think this is different from the healing coven magic? Luz and I were hypothesizing that maybe glyphs could blend multiple covens of magic, since they predate Belos’ influence. Then again, Luz is human, so maybe the magic is just taking on an entirely different form? Or maybe it draws from a--” Edric let out a loud, aggressive yawn, cutting me off.

“Jeez Mittens, I’m sorry but you’re gonna have to save all of  _ that  _ for your dorky girlfriend and her two teacher-moms.”

I stood up sharply, and squared up to Edric with my hands clenched tightly into fists. Blood rushed to my head and every part of me wanted to hit him, scream, hide, run, tell him what an idiot he is, kick him out, throw him out the window. The moment passed like a seering wave of shame and anger before I realized what I was doing, what I probably looked like. I clasped my hands over my mouth to reflexively stop any less-than-flattering information from spilling out that could be weaponized against me. I saw Edric watch all of this with a shocked look, but otherwise hardly budging from his relaxed state. 

“Holy…  _ Amity _ , wow. Sorry, I was just totally joking but I guess I struck a nerve, huh?” Ed laughed sheepishly and moved as though he wanted to help calm me down. I just shrugged him off, sighing as I sat back down. I kept my eyes averted, using my bangs as an impromptu privacy curtain in the hopes that he wouldn’t see the blush still undoubtedly painting my cheeks.

“Sorry. It’s fine, Ed, it’s just… well,  _ you’re _ the one who asked about it in the first place. Don’t be such a prick! I don’t have it in me to put up with your funny guy button pushing right now.” I chided softly, kicking him gently in the shin. Ed shot me a disarming smile and held up his hands.

“You’re right, sorry, sorry. Just a bit late in the day for magic theory.” He leaned back against the desk as we sat in silence for a moment. I could feel him eyeing me as we did - obviously wanting to open his mouth and say something to get a rise out of me again but wisely deciding against it. Finally, he sighed and broke the silence. “Anyway, seriously - nice work with the leg. Have you thought about what you’re going to tell mom?” 

I shrugged. “I’m just gonna tell her the truth, honestly. I think that’s probably for the best.”

Edric stroked his chin in silence, pondering. “You’re probably right. Hard to tell with her these days, though. Hell, if anything she should be  _ proud  _ of you.” Hearing this shocked me a bit, causing my ears to twitch and feel hot at the tips. “Besides, even I don’t think I could come up with a convincing lie to cover up this one - especially since you took the cast off and, what, set it free?” 

“ _ Ha! _ Yeah, I guess.” I chuckled, having totally forgotten about the cast. What was technically a magical artefact on loan from the healing coven now either prowled the woods outside the Owl House or had already become a snack for some lesser demon. Thinking of snacks, even in this context, made my stomach growl - reminding me that I managed to skip dinner while being lost in my own world.

“Hey, so, uh… no chance there are any leftovers from dinner?” I asked sheepishly. Edric smirked at me, letting the question linger. 

“Yeah. Mom wrapped some up for you. I told her you were home and busy studying for your Quarterlies and that I’d make sure you’d eat.” He stood up straighter now and crossed his arms, signaling that he’d be out of my hair soon.

“Oh… thanks, Edric.” I balked, blushing a bit. “You didn’t have to lie to cover for me, you know. You could have told her the truth.”

“What, and tell mom you were out all day with some human girl that you have big heart-eyes for, hunting for ancient magic glyphs lost to time? Yeah, right.”

I kicked him again in the shin, harder this time. “Oh, shut  _ up. _ Wait, does that mean you were the one that lit all my candles?”

“Eh, yeah. Gotta keep up appearances.” Edric shrugged and tousled my hair. “Anyways, I assumed that you’d rather try to keep up the whole ‘ _ mom’s perfect little student’  _ image for a little longer, in spite of everything. Maybe next time I’ll just tell her everything and let that play out.” He winked at me, nearly singing his smarmy ‘ _ perfect student _ ’ insult. I chose not to take the bait as he walked towards the door. As his hand rested on the handle, he turned back to me. 

“Oh, and… hey, try not to stay out so late from now on, alright?”  
I huffed at him. “Oh, _please_ , like you’re one to tell me what to do. You and Em stay out late all the time.” 

He held his hands up at me disarmingly. “ _Listen_ , Mittens, I’m just saying. Your two favorite siblings aren’t going to be around to cover for you like this forever. Besides, you know Em usually gets a ride with Viney. And me? Well, I’m just built different.”  
I rolled my eyes at him, prompting more lecturing. “Also you know all kinds of shit comes crawling out of the woodwork at night. It’s dangerous enough as it is to be walking from one end of Bonesborough to another after dark, but it is especially so when you make that walk alone.”

“I wasn’t alone, I had Luz!” I whined. He had a point, but I didn’t want to give him any ground. “Besides, you’re seriously in no position to be lecturing me about this right now. Literally three nights ago you were gone until almost daybreak and even I didn’t have any idea where you were at.”

Ed raised his hands again. “Alright, look - not a lecture, okay? Look, watch.” He mimed obnoxiously dismounting a steed. “I’m getting down off my  _ grand griffon _ , alright?” I tried and failed to stifle a laugh as I thought of Luz telling me all about an apparent human saying that was surprisingly similar, just involving something called a ‘horse’. 

“I’m just trying to look out for you, Am. Besides, you walked here with Luz but how did Luz walk home? Alone, I’m guessing.”

I avoided his gaze, all but affirming his question. 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Amity, it’s dangerous enough for us magic users - what about humans? You know they’re fragile.”

“Oh, come on, Ed. You know Luz can hold her own - you’ve seen her in action.” 

Ed tilted his head to one side, mulling this over before finally assenting. “Hm… you have a point there.” Then, he chuckled, “Still, I’ve also seen her in  _ way  _ too deep and needed to get bailed out by either you or the Owl Lady on more than one occasion.”

I smiled at this, thinking back to our fight against Grom. To this day I maintain that we bailed each other out of trouble that night. “Alright, alright… I hear what you’re saying. I’ll be more careful. _ We’ll _ be more careful.” We smiled at each other in silence for a while. It had been a long time since my big brother genuinely watched out for me like this, and I think we let ourselves quietly savor the sickly sweet sibling bonding for a moment. 

“Just… I don’t know, invite her to stay over next time, if you have to. She can crash on the couch in the den, or something. Mom probably wouldn’t even notice.” He kept his shimmering golden eyes on me as he said this as if he wanted to gauge my reaction. He could barely contain his shit-eating grin as he was rewarded by the sight of my face turning a bright red as I imagined Luz and I at a sleepover together. I pictured us holding hands.  _ Amity. No.  _ I watched him stew in his satisfaction with one last successful button push as he turned to leave. 

“Alright, Mittens, I’m going to bed. Get something to eat. Oh, and if you see Em ask her if she wants to borrow my turtleneck again -  _ oh,  _ that’s always a good one.  _ Ha! _ ” 

“Alright, yeah, yeah. Get out of here.” I watched him as he turned to leave, a hitch in my throat. I sighed wistfully.

“Hey, Edric?” He turned back, already halfway through the door. “Thank you. You know, for looking out for me. And Em, too. I… appreciate it a lot. Even if I’m not very good at showing it.” I rubbed the back of my neck, regret once again bubbling in my chest. “Oh, and I like the colors of your nails, too, by the way.” I grinned at him. I had noticed earlier that he painted his nails alternating shades of olive and grey, or maybe it had been a low-level illusion spell he was trying on. Still, it suited him. Over the last several weeks I had noticed him experimenting with new looks and styles, though he never drew attention to them. One time we bumped into each other on our way to each get our own midnight snack when I spotted him sporting a very tasteful, if amateurish, cateye. I watched him now as his ears twitched and he failed to hide a light blush. 

“Thanks, sis.” He smiled thinly and winked at me as he finally closed the door behind him. “Love you.”

“Love you too, Ed.” 

-

My dreams that night were sweet, warm, and safe; lush with feelings of melting and caressing. And they were fleeting. For the sound of screaming reached through the veil and snatched me away from the cradling arms of deep sleep and pulled me back into the cold, loud world. I reached over and whacked the alarm demon screaming in agony and terror as it pulled back its eyelids at me, the hit sufficient to knock it back into dormancy. I rolled onto my back and pushed the heels of my palms into my eyes until I could see spots; hoping to snatch just one more glimpse of that delicate, loving, and strangely familiar dream world before forcing myself to face the day. It never came back. 

I groaned into my palms, dreading that first step beyond my duvet. I slapped my mattress with resignation and swung my legs off the edge of the bed, forcing myself to keep my eyes open. I drew a small spell circle in the air. Several candles throughout my room flickered awake with a deep purple flame before eventually mellowing out to a soft, warm candle flame. I stood and stretched before closing the window, shutting out the cold predawn air. I quickly threw on my school uniform under my letter jacket before sitting down in front of my vanity to continue my morning routine. I regarded myself in the mirror, pulling at different parts of my face, parting my hair in different ways, tying it up, letting it down again. Hood up? No, no - hood down. 

I looked haggard. Bags under my eyes from being rudely ejected from a sweet, dreamful sleep. My hair was getting too long and even somehow appeared to be lopsided. What was once Kelly green now faded to a shy, pastel teal - frizzy on the ends - and shone in stark contrast to the burning auburn making its steady comeback for the first time in years. I sighed at the sight of myself, honing in on every little imperfection, but mostly staring at my hair.  _ Panda. _ I parted it again, brushing part of it back before clipping it so my bangs wouldn’t fall immediately in my face; letting the rest flow where it may.  _ Luz said pandas are cute.  _ My ears twitched as I thought about that for a moment, thinking back on all the recent times Luz dropped in on me while I was at my absolute grungiest points - hair unwashed, pajamas on their fourth day of being worn, cranky from days upon days of being cooped up on account of my leg. And yet at the end of it all, in her own way, Luz called me…  _ cute? _ I felt my cheeks burn lightly at the thought.  _ Get a hold of yourself, Blight. You were probably just hearing what you wanted to hear. _ Still, I smiled at myself now and straightened my back. I leaned in and finished my makeup, donning the quick, trusty cateye that served me so well so far. Then I regarded myself one last time and smirked.  _ I think she’s right. _

I thundered down the stairs, books in tow, nearly slamming face first into Emira who looked nearly undead. She started at the sight of me suddenly appearing around the corner, having been completely lost in her own world only moments before. She looked like she had been up all night and even smelled like it, too. Still, the familiar glimmer in her eye and the half-cocked smirk on her face told me that this was Em in her element. I beamed at her.

“ _ Wha-? Oh.  _ Morning, Mittens.” She said with a voice that sounded husky and raw, ruffling my hair.

“ _ Jeez _ , morning Em. You and Viney practice shooting each other with your most powerful spells all night or what?” I chided, getting my blows in while I can. 

“For crying out loud, Amity, not so loud!” She hissed, motioning as if she was about to clap her hand around my mouth. Then, she smiled at me, and winked. “Still, I could ask you the same thing. Or is it just a coincidence that you hang out with the cute human all day and come back with a brand new foot and sunshine in your eyes?”

I opened my mouth to protest, but only a sputtering choke came out. My cheeks burned hot and Em only laughed at how obvious I must have looked in that moment. Still, I tried to save face. “It’s the same foot you freak. Just better now thanks to your late night  _ study  _ partner.” I laid the insult on thick, hoping it would land and I would come out on top. Emira only smiled at me and cupped my cheek.

“Oh, Amity.” She gave my cheek a light slap and left me feeling bewildered as she moved past me to head back up the stairs. “She’s gonna be really stoked to hear it worked out for you, you know!”

I rolled my eyes at this before continuing into the kitchen. The sun was just peeking out through the treeline now, casting the evergreen painted cabinets and pearl white countertops in a hazy and blinding orange glow. I swallowed hard as I rounded the corner into the kitchen. Standing at the sink with her back turned was Odalia - my mother. 

“Good morning, Amity.” She said softly, her emotion flat and unreadable.

My mind raced, trying to recall every detail I had prepared for how to explain to her what happened yesterday. “Good morning, mother.” I managed to eke out, attempting to match her tone.

Mom turned around to face me as she dried her hands, and gave me a warm, disarming smile. The sunlight hit her face making her golden Blight family eyes light up like powerful magic rings. “How’d you sleep, sweetie?”

My mom always stood tall over me, even from across the room. Her forest green hair was tied up in her classic high, clean bun, laying bare her ears pierced with delicate jade drops. Mom always had a gaze that insinuated she always knew more than she let on, and this only sharpened with time. Even now, with bags deep set beneath her eyes betraying sleep deprivation, she looked at me as though she was already planning several moves ahead of me and I was foolish to not realize that sooner. She wore a simple evergreen long-skirted dress with white frills climbing up her chest, and a white apron tied around her waist accentuating the strong hips she used to carry - or sometimes even drag - this family through tough times. 

I played my role nonchalantly. “Not too bad.” I shrugged. “It was tougher than usual waking up this morning, though.” 

“I thought as much, I heard your alarm going off for a while before you finally shut it off. Must have been one sweet dream.” She sighed wistfully and turned back to finish off whatever she was doing when I walked in. I took a seat at the kitchen island and gazed out the window over her shoulder. Classes were still a couple hours away but I couldn’t tarry for much longer if I wanted to link up with Willow, Gus, and Luz for the walk to school. 

“Is dad still out?” I asked, carefully. Mom hesitated, briefly stopping what she was doing, before she sighed. 

“Unfortunately, yes. I think this is just how things are going to have to be for a while, sweetie.” She finally turned to face me and slowly walked to the other end of the island. “It’s all hands-on-deck for the Emperor’s Coven and that, of course, includes your father.” She shot a wistful gaze over my shoulder towards the front door, as if he was meant to walk through it at any moment. Her lip quivered, and her ears twitched imperceptibly. Watching this felt like my heart was hit with a forge hammer, shattering it utterly. I reached out over the island and rested my hand on her forearm. I said nothing but smiled thinly at her, frantically searching for the right words to say that wouldn’t sound vapid or trying. Mom’s eyes only snapped down at me, breaking her trance.

“Oh, Amity.” She sighed, and turned her back to me once again, turning her attention back to the dish pit. “I packed you lunch. Don’t you have to get going soon?” 

“Yeah, soon. I’m supposed to meet my friends at the clearing in a little while, but I still have time to kill.” I idly wove my hand through my hair as I spoke, spinning part of my bangs into a sort of braid. Mom loudly clattered a dish at the mention of my ‘friends’.

“Skara and Boscha? You know, I haven’t seen them in a while…” 

“No, actually… Willow and Gus. And Luz.” I watched her reaction to this carefully. Recently mom had stopped prying into my social life and I had a hunch it was because she knew she wouldn’t like what she would see. She said nothing but continued to work on dishes in such a way that I worried she would snap a plate in half. I sat watching her for a while in silence as well, afraid of making a wrong move that could potentially set her off even more. Finally she stopped what she was doing and sighed, slouching her shoulders. I heard her mutter something under her breath before turning back around to face me, her gaze softening as she regarded me.

“Well, anyway, you should be careful to not keep your friends waiting for you too long. Don’t push yourself with your leg, you know.” Then, her eyebrows furrowed. “Did you forget your crutch upstairs?  _ Damn it all _ , Amity! I told you a dozen times before, you  _ must _ use it to get around at all times - even when moving around the house! Do you want to hurt yourself again and land yourself  _ back _ in bed for another two weeks? I swear, I will not have a daughter that simply dissolves into her bedframe because she is too lazy to even so much as --”

“ _ Mom! _ ” I slapped my palm on the counter, hardly even registering my own actions. I felt my face burning ever hotter as I was made to sit there and bear yet another verbal beatdown. “I fixed my _ fuck _ \--... I fixed my foot, okay?” I struggled to maintain eye contact with Odalia as she slowly came around the corner of the island, removing the only obstacle keeping us apart. I felt helpless just sitting there now and I wanted desperately to crawl under the chair to hide from this can of worms I just opened.

“ _ What _ did you just say?” Her voice was tense, like an over tuned lute string threatening to snap under the tension.

“I said… I said I fixed my foot. Luz and I did. I’m sorry.” 

“You can’t be serious…” She chuckled at me and hid her mouth behind her hand. She looked down at my foot and looked back up at me, wide-eyed. “Amity, your  _ cast! _ What did you do?  _ Titan _ , Amity, what have you  _ done? _ ” She knelt down in front of me and tentatively reached out towards my foot before quickly retracting her hand.

“ _ Mom _ .” I said sharply, forcing her to look up at me. “Look.” I pulled up my pant leg to show her my foot. I wove it around, rolled it, and posed it. “It’s totally fine.”

She stood up shakily, bracing herself against the island. “But… Amity, you’re still only on the abominations track. And you cannot tell me that a  _ human _ did this to you. Amity?” She nearly spat venom at the mention of Luz, nearly breaking my heart. 

“Mom, her  _ name  _ is  _ Luz _ .” Once again I slapped my hand against the island, causing both of us to flinch. She backed away slightly, stammering. “Mom I’m sorry I just… will you let me explain?  _ Please? _ ” 

Mom stared at me for a long moment, searching my face; hand still gently covering her mouth. Her face was a mix of shock and shame, as if I had just played her for a fool. Finally, she nodded her assent and relaxed against the island. I sighed in relief before diving right in, giving her a brief but truthful run-down of all the relevant details from yesterday, stopping only to apologize profusely for not mentioning anything sooner, for letting the cast get away, for staying out so late, and for keeping all of this from her. I struggled to swallow my frustration over my situation, feeling as though she was responsible for putting me in this position to begin with - if I had just been able to  _ talk _ to her without feeling as though she would punish me utterly for stepping out of line then we wouldn’t be here now. Still, she stood quietly and intently listened to my story as I laid out the details, carefully omitting the parts that would give her too much leverage over my and Emira’s personal lives. 

I finished giving her the recap, ending by explaining that I walked all the way home with no issues and that my foot felt stronger than it did before, somehow. Then, we sat in searching silence. Mother knelt down in front of me and gently rested her hands on my knees, and stared into my eyes. She cupped my cheek with one of her hands and gently brushed it with her thumb.

“I’ve always said you are your father’s daughter.” She smiled warmly at me now. “I’m so, so proud of you.” 

She sighed as she rose, looking down at me now as my cheeks burned and I forced myself to look away, choking on my words. I expected a blowout fight, silent treatment, shame - the usual Blight parental methods. Instead, mom blindsided me with a restrained kindness that made me feel as though I was undeserving. I couldn’t tell if I was relieved or even more resentful than before. 

“You know, I’m sure the Emperor’s Coven would be more than happy to accept you and your human friend with discoveries like these. I bet even your father’s project group could make use of those  _ glyphs _ .” She said absent-mindedly as she walked away. I only stared, all of my emotion replaced by an entirely hollow feeling.  _ Typical. _

“I should go, mom. I’m going to be late at this rate.” I said numbly, rising from my chair.

“ _ Oh? _ Right.” She spun on her heel and reached into the groaning cooler dominating one corner of our kitchen, and drew a small spell circle that caused it to yawn open. She reached in and pulled out a light green paper bag tied shut at the top. She held it out to me. “Don’t forget your lunch, dear.”

“Thanks, mom. Love you.” I grabbed the bag and trudged towards the door. 

“You know, we should talk about your hair once you get home today now that your foot is feeling better!” She called out to me from the kitchen. I couldn’t muster a response as I threw open the front door and headed out, books in tow.




The walk to the clearing was cool and quiet. The morning mists receded quietly into the woods around me, leaving just myself and my shuffling, stomping abomination alone to enjoy the peace. The bright, cloudless morning was dwarfed by the storm that raged inside of me then, however. The more I tried to rationalize or explain my mother’s behavior to myself the more I felt like thrashing everything around me. Even though I once followed closely in their footsteps, marching lockstep towards the same path towards the Emperor’s Coven, nowadays I refused to understand their cold careerism. So much so that when I was reminded of where their true values lie it made the world taste bitter and hopeless. Sure, they both cared in their own way, but whenever I looked around for a parent to lean on there were either several layers of walls in front of them or they had devoted so much of their life to their work that they couldn’t recognize good parenting from career advancement by proxy. 

As I approached the final bends before the clearing, I did my best to clear my head. I looked up at my book-carrying abomination and smiled to myself. Now here was the model of coping: no thoughts, brain empty, just one foot in front of the other until told otherwise.  _ I could learn a thing or two from this guy. _ I came around the bend into the clearing where the four of us usually meet. A low, stone wall ran along one side of the path and the trees backed away from the road to reveal a T-shaped intersection. Taking a right would take me to Hexside, going straight would take me back towards town and the Owl House beyond, and behind me lay the path back towards the Upper Rib - the bourgeoisie hillside where the Emperor’s favorites tended to cloister themselves. Casting my eyes around the clearing I saw Gus and Willow sitting next to each other on the stone wall. Willow wore a pleasant yellow tweed jacket over her Hexside uniform, the pockets practically bursting with various different seed packets that poked out haphazardly. Slung over her shoulder were a couple of masonry pots tied to a bundle of books. Gus sat next to her in his blue Hexside uniform with the hood pulled up over his ears, kicking his feet listlessly in the air as he told some animated story. He stopped short as I approached and beamed at me.

“Well,  _ hello  _ Ms. Blight! And -  _ oh! _ ” He shot up from where he was sitting and gave an animated bow towards my abomination. “ _ Buenos dias, Senor de Goopy. _ ” Lowering his voice so he sounded like an emcee at a smoke-filled night lounge.

Willow and I chuckled at him. “I’m sorry -  _ what? _ ” I managed to get out.

“Just trying out some new human phrases Luz taught me. Besides I wanted to show your faithful companion some deference for a change.” He smiled and patted my abomination on the shoulder. The creature gave a wide smile and tilted his head to one side as Gus tried to wipe purple goo off his hands onto the grass.

“Hiya, Willow. No Luz today?” I asked.

“Hey Amity. I think she must just be running late, again. I know she doesn’t have an alarm these days so it’s a miracle she’s showed up on time to anything at all.” 

I rubbed the back of my neck thinking back to yesterday. “Ha, yeah. You have a point.”

“ _ Woah,  _ hey, Amity! Are you practicing your illusion magic too or is your cast off?” Gus said, kneeling down to get a closer look. I groaned internally. I hadn’t considered the possibility that I would have to rehash this conversation several times today, and I certainly wasn’t looking forward to any comments from teachers or Principal Bump. Still, I smiled at Gus.

“Yeah, uhh… Luz and I managed to figure out some healing glyph and healed my foot with it. It’s a long story but we’ll tell you guys about it later.” I shot him a sly wink. He seemed satisfied enough by this.

“Well, nice work!” He said singsongingly. “You guys have been killing it with the glyph hunt lately.” Then, he sighed. “Still, haven’t found anything quite as cool as this.” He drew a small spell circle, spawning an identical copy of himself.

“C’mon! What’s better than  _ this! _ Two Guses!” Willow and I both laughed at him again as he and his copy spun in exaggerated circles. After he ended his schtick I moved to sit down on the stone wall next to Willow. 

“What’s all this?” I motioned towards her jacket pockets replete with seed packets.

“ _ Oh, _ you know, just some extracurriculars.” She said bashfully, hiding her face a bit behind her jacket collar. “I’m gonna try my hand at growing a grabbage patch.”

“Oh! Aren’t those things like… really needy?” 

“Yeah but even after their first budding they take on a whole personality of their own. Apparently the best of the green thumbs can tell what their little grabbage kids are going to become before they even put the first seed in the ground.” Her face progressively lit up as she went on. I smiled at her, and nodded. 

“At this rate I bet you’re not too far off. What do you think? Feel anything special from the seeds?” I prodded, leaning over to get a look at one of the packets she now held in her hands.

She returned my smile and looked down at the packet, running her thumb over the embossment on the front. She stared for a minute before looking back up at me, gazing at me with an unsure smile. “I feel like… one of them is going to be a really talented dancer.” I couldn’t help but to giggle. 

“Maybe Gus can teach it some moves.” We both looked back over to Gus who, despite not having a captive audience, was busy quietly trying to teach his copy some synchronous dance moves. “Here - it goes  _ one, two, step, then arm out - no, no! Arm out, see? _ ” His copy was mimicking his moves perfectly, smiling the whole time. Willow and I chuckled to ourselves, managing to not break his attention away from his dance number. Then we all turned our heads towards the thundering footsteps coming around the bend - followed by wild yelling. 

“ _ Guys! Guys wait! Wait up --”  _

Luz Noceda came sprinting around the bend, nearly slipping on some loose dirt in the process. Willow and I waved her over. She slowed to a plodding jog before stopping just short of us, dropping her books down onto the grass and huffing loudly as she braced herself on her knees.

“ _ Phew - huff -  _ I thought you guys -  _ huff  _ \- had already left,” she finally managed to stand up straight, and shot us each a sly finger gun with a shaky ‘ _ pew _ ’. Luz wore her atypical multicolored Hexside uniform under a long, olive green utility jacket. Her hair shot out wild in every direction from under her chocolate colored beanie and sweat glinted on her forehead. She stooped low to pick up her books before moving to stand by the three of us, finally catching her breath in the process.

“Willow. Gus. Amity. Good morning. I’m glad I wasn’t too late for our usual  _ brain trust _ meeting.” She smiled devilishly at herself. I felt my heart beat loud in my chest as she said my name. “And -  _ oh!  _ Senor de Goopy, good morning!” She too gave an exaggerated bow to my abomination who looked at me vacantly, goo sloughing off his face. Chuckling, I looked back to Luz who was nudging Gus and beaming.

“C’mon, not you too. What are you even saying?” 

“What? He’s a member of the trust now, too, and we should respect that.” She grinned, placing her hands on her hips. My heart thumped loud in my chest again, and I coughed to try to stifle it.  _ Amity…  _

“Well, gang, should we get a move on?” Luz announced, tapping her foot.

The four of us all rose and gathered our things to make the short walk to Hexside. Our morning meetings at the clearing were always enough to get us all in high spirits for the day, and often we’d stay long enough to miss the first warning alarms that foretold the beginning of first period. Today was no different. Still, the four of us walked at a leisurely pace, sharing jokes and trying to come up with new, better names for my abomination. Much to my chagrin, Gus and Luz outvoted any idea I had. I couldn’t help but to think of how my abominations professors would reprimand me for naming any of my abominations - it was never even the same one twice - but when I looked up at my book carrier now I couldn’t help but to think ‘ _ Senor de Goopy _ ’ and smile. Gus and Willow walked a few paces ahead of Luz and I as we gradually began to fall behind them. She leaned closer to me, our shoulders briefly brushing together - causing my whole body to tense up in shock. 

“Hey Am, how’s your foot doing today? Still good?”

“Uh,  _ hi! Yes! _ Yeah, it’s great, thanks!  _ Haha! _ ” I stammered incoherently. “I mean… yeah. Whatever we did definitely seems to have stuck.” I smiled up at her, ignoring the fact that the heat in my cheeks must have been obvious for anyone to see.

Luz rubbed the back of her neck and averted her gaze. “Nice. I can’t believe our luck.”

“Luck? No, I think this was all you and your knack for this.” I shot back casually, causing her to look back up at me.

“What do you mean? I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Hmm, maybe. You also couldn’t have done it without Viney, in a way, but I think you would have figured it all out on your own eventually, anyway. Besides none of us would have even considered it to be a possibility if not for you.” She blushed at this, and averted her gaze once more. “Give yourself some credit, Noceda. You deserve it.” I gently but intentionally bumped into her with my shoulder, watching her reaction as she did. I swore I could see her cheeks light up as she avoided making eye contact, instead casting her eyes to the side so I couldn’t see her face beyond her hair.

“Well… when you put it that way.” She looked back to me now, beaming as she did. She had a gleam in her eye that once again caused my heart to skip a beat. “I think we  _ both _ have some serious skill, Blight. Hey! Let’s keep our eyes open for anyone that might be in need of some of our  _ magic touch _ , eh?” She shot me a wink. “I want to show this off before it somehow lands us in hot water.” 

I swallowed hard before letting out a dry chuckle. Even when I braced myself, Luz always managed to practically knock me flat with the looks she’d shoot me. “ _ Haha, yeah. _ ” I managed to meekly eke out, even though I thought it was a bad idea. “Let’s do that.”

We approached the front gates of Hexside much quicker than any of us would have liked and reluctantly we said our momentary goodbyes; each of us shuffling off to our disparate first periods. Luz and I lingered longer on the steps than the others, busying ourselves with doing our worst impressions of our least favorite professors reacting to our healing prowess. I nearly missed the sound of the final bell while cackling over Luz’s impression of our abominations professor being gifted a new set of long, teen legs. 

To say days at Hexside are boring would be a disservice but if there ever was a routine day - it was today. I waved off random asinine comments from know-it-alls about my foot and even managed to avoid any amount of examination from the healing track professors who somehow managed to catch wind of the glyph. Luz, Willow, Gus and I rotated in and out of each others’ classes, helping each other not to fall asleep by passing back and forth notes featuring artistic renditions of professors with exaggeratedly long legs. The day went by in a flash, every blink seeming to accelerate time hours into the next period. 

A sleepy, midafternoon haze swept over final period just before the shrill screaming of the final bell rudely snapped our class out from its waking slumber. I could feel everyone breathe a collective sigh of relief as we moved to pack our things, the sound of shuffling all but drowning out Professor Timblesbleck’s final opining about the relationship of witch physiology and the seasons. I swung my bundle of books under my arm and made my way to the door, whispering a smiling “ _ thanks, professor _ ” to the teacher as I moved past them. 

Even with a rotating schedule, the end of the day always seemed to follow the same beats: leave class, put away books into my locker, and regroup with the brain trust for the walk home. Today was no different. As I sleepily slammed my excess books down my locker’s gullet, I turned to see Willow standing by quietly at a distance, smiling towards me. 

“Hey, Amity.” She said shyly. I gave her a congenial wave with one hand in response.

Lately, things had improved with Willow, significantly. When the brain trust was all together we walked and talked, joked and japed, and generally speaking it all felt as though we were rediscovering all the time I squandered and lost from our falling-out. I could never fully quiet the deep feeling of regret that I felt for letting myself be bullied into boxing her out, and I could still sense her wariness, but things were improving bit by bit every day. Still, in the quiet moments where we found ourselves alone together, the tension was still heartbreakingly relevant. And incredibly awkward. Without Luz or Gus there to serve as a veritable social liferaft, the two of us were suddenly reminded of all the work we still had to do to return to a semblance of normalcy. Still, Willow was making an effort to rebuild the bridge I burned. And although I felt as if I didn’t deserve it, that fact alone made me want to put in the effort as well.

I shut the mouth of my locker and walked over to Willow. “Hiya, Willow. Ready?” She nodded in response and we went off to find our friends. 

The halls around Hexside this time of day were always a poorly controlled disaster. Students in a rush to escape back to their homes, hovels, and hideouts would bowl over those that were just taking their time. Students would be half heartedly practicing spells and potions they learned earlier in the day in the hall, often resulting in small fires, out-of-control plant growth, or even fleeting abomination sentience. On top of everything else, walking the halls of Hexside was always a lesson in critical avoidance. Managing to avoid being caught in the splash damage of a mana blast gone rogue was infinitely less tricky than managing to completely avoid running into the people you wanted to see the least. Round the wrong corner and  _ boom _ , suddenly you’re met face to face with the guy who did a late night deep dive on your Pensta and started replying to images you took two years ago. Knowing what nooks and crannies to duck into at what times were a must. Or, like us and many others, you used a buddy system.

Willow and I made pleasant small talk about our day as we traversed the halls of Hexside towards where we knew Luz’s locker was. As we rounded the bend towards the stair spire, we ran headlong into the oncoming path of a familiar witch. Walking alone, head held high and two of her three eyes closed, was Boscha. We had enough time to regard her as she approached. Her deep pink hair was tied up in her typical high ponytail that flowed as she bounded along, and she wore her grudgby letter jacket over her yellow potions track uniform. I watched as her third brow furrowed and her ears twitched wildly upon seeing us in her path. However, instead of averting her path or slowing down, she instead closed her third eye and picked up her pace - a wry smirk spilling out over her face.

I glanced over at Willow now, moments away from disaster. Her face betrayed a mix of fear and fury - the righteous kind of fury I saw only all-too-briefly on the face of her inner self. Her eyes seemed to burn green around the edges as she widened her stance, apparently realizing Boscha’s game. I made a move to step in, wrench her out of Boscha’s path, try to do some damage control while I still could. Boscha opened her eyes at the last possible moment, startled at the sight of a firmly planted Willow Park staring her down as she approached. Boscha took a final half step to the side so the two of them wouldn’t slam their heads into each other, but Willow caught her with her shoulder. The sound of scuffing shoes and elbows hitting the tile floor reverberated off the walls as the two of them tumbled to the ground opposite one another. Boscha huffed in pain as she caught the rest of her weight with the ball of her wrist and I quickly moved to help Willow off the ground. 

“ _ Shit. _ Are you okay?” I asked softly, keeping my eyes on the pink haired witch as she picked herself up off the ground. 

“Yeah, Amity. I’m fine.” Willow shot me a thin smile as she took my hand - clearly rattled. She dusted down the skirt of her tunic and straightened out her jacket before once again slyly squaring her stance.

“Watch where you’re fucking going, loser!” Boscha hissed between gritted teeth. She held her fists out to her side and leaned in towards Willow, their faces only inches apart. I positioned my hand between them and pleaded.

“ _ Woah _ , back off Boscha, alright? I’m sure it was just an accident. Right, Willow?” I knew the answer already but I looked at Willow desperately anyway. Her face was stone but her ears twitched. Looking at her now I couldn’t help but wonder if she was trapped between fight and flight.

Boscha smacked my hand out of the way. “Oh, _yeah_ right.” She shot me a malicious toothy grin. “Look at you two, thinking you’re making some kind of statement.”  
Willow piped up, barely opening her mouth as she growled. “Back _off_ , Boscha.”

Boscha just ignored the threat. “So, what, you two kiss and make up and suddenly you think you can just do whatever the fuck you want around here?” Her eyes darted back and forth between us, daring a response. I cast my eyes about frantically, but saw nobody else. It was as if a fog of war draped around us, shutting out every other student in the halls. Still I could feel their eyes on us like so many pinpricks.

“Look, just back off Boscha. This is beneath even you. Honestly.” I tried to get my jabs in where it hurt in an attempt to make her see reason. She snarled at me. 

“Oh fuck you, Amity. Like you’re in any position to be putting anyone in their  _ place. _ ” Then she forcefully grabbed the lapel of my old grudgby letter jacket. I watched as she ran her thumb over the embroidered ‘A’ before looking me in the eye. “And take this fucking jacket off. You don’t deserve to wear it anymore.” She gave my shoulder a sharp shove as she said this, and, unprepared, I felt the ground slip out beneath my feet. I tried and failed to catch myself, my feet oafishly tripping over themselves before the tile floor rushed up to meet the back of my head and elbows. 

My teeth clattered together hard, narrowly missing my tongue in the process. The echo of my jaw rang through my ears like a sonorous cymbal just crashed through the floor next to me. I reflexively clamped my eyes shut in anticipation of the impact and as I opened them now all I could see were stars on a field of inky darkness. I shut them again and clasped my hands to my ears, just as the first waves of pain started to wash over me.  _ Holy shit _ . I thought to myself as I began to panic. I opened my eyes again, silently praying that this time I would see the ceiling of Hexside’s stair spire. As I did I saw Willow rush to lean over me. She inexplicably appeared to move in slow motion and the sight of shock plastered on her face caused me to panic even more. Then, like a rush of blood to the head, my hearing returned. I heard Willow call out to me. 

“ _ Amity!  _ Crap, Amity! Are you okay?” She leaned down and reached a hand out desperately. I clung to it, and sat up straight, allowing me to take stock of everything. I reached up to the back of my head, bracing myself for the worst. But when I pulled my hand away and looked at it, I saw nothing. 

“Yeah… yeah I’m fine Willow. Thanks.” I attempted to smile up at Willow now, my face likely contorting strangely as my face shook and my lips quivered with adrenaline and pain. Willow rested a hand on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring nod, before standing up straighter to face down Boscha. I briefly felt her trembling as she removed her hand.

“Willow,  _ don’t. I’m fine. _ ” I pleaded. I got no response.

“Boscha - this has gone far enough.” Her voice was quivering, but she made her resolve known as she moved closer to the pink haired witch. 

“ _ Ha! _ ” Boscha scoffed. “Oh really, Willow? Do you think so?” She rested her hands on her hips and watched as Willow inched closer. She tapped her foot impatiently. Willow didn’t react.

“Willow, you’re better than this! Better than her!” I called out to her, struggling now to get back on my feet. The ground beneath me felt like a ship rocking in choppy seas.

“What are you gonna do, Willow?” Boscha turned to face the witch whose ears burned red with anger. “Hit  _ me _ \--”

Boscha let out a wheeze as Willow gave a surprising spin on her heel, winding back before kicking Boscha in her ribs. My jaw gaped, and I could see the fog of war recede now as the pressing circle of onlooking students began to jeer. As I quickly cast my gaze around to see if there were any professors or friendly faces nearby, Willow drew a small spell circle.

Boscha hit the ground hard on her shoulder, clearly also unprepared for Willow’s kick. Her eyes were blazing now as she quickly tried to sit up and, upon seeing Willow’s spell circle, rolled out of the way. A grasping net of vines broke through the tile floor, attempting to ensnare the prone pink haired witch. They flailed pointlessly in the air, grasping merely at the space where Boscha used to be. 

Boscha clambored to her feet with a deft spin. “Ugh…  _ finally _ . It’s about time you fucking stand up for yourself.” She sported a wicked grin as she drew two spell circles and moved her hands through them. Instantly a pink flame delicately wrapped around each of her sharp nails. Willow took a step back.

“Boscha just  _ back off _ . It doesn’t have to go down like this.” Her voice was still shaky, but her stance was strong. She reminded me of a grudgby front line, staring down the opponents’ main tank. 

Boscha scoffed, and reached into her half-sized school bag still dangling from her shoulder before tossing it far to the side. “No, no, please - I’m excited to finally see what you’re made of  _ myself _ .” She grunted as she threw the contents of the bag on the ground between them, immediately filling the open space with an acrid, thick smoke. I felt a scream well up in my throat.

“Willow, get  _ out of there! _ ” I desperately waved the air in front of my face in an attempt to clear some breathing room. I could hear muffled coughs and stampeding feet around me as the circle of onlookers retreated back down the hall. My vision was nearly completely obscured but I could see Boscha’s flaming hands trace light down the space between them. I heard her slash the air, the wavering flames rippling like flags on a windy day. The two said nothing, just huffing as they attempted to exchange blows in the choking fog, dodging every strike. The sound of rending clothes and sizzling broke the silence. Willow let out a pained yelp.

I could see Boscha back off at this, preparing herself for an incoming counter strike. Instead, a green spell circle appeared close to the ground, and immediately a broad petaled pink flower rose from the empty space just in front of where Willow now crouched. The flower spun as it rose and grew, rising several feet above the two of them. The wide brimmed petals and leaves wafted the air as it did, whipping up a strong current of air and clearing the choking fumes. The gust was powerful enough to knock Boscha off her stance, and several of the remaining onlookers were even knocked to the ground. 

I could see Willow’s wounds now. Two sets of slashes burned bright red on her upper left arm and right thigh, looking as though they were immediately cauterized by Boscha’s flaming claws. Even for a witches duel this was extreme. I moved to run to Willow’s side to try to put a stop to this as I heard thundering footsteps coming from the stairs below, accompanied by the unmistakable thunderous shouts of Principal Bump. As I moved to join Willow’s side, I saw Boscha barreling down, bending around the extant windflower. She moved to swipe at Willow now, high enough to strike her shoulder and still moving at full stride. Willow ducked at the last possible second and threw her body weight into Boscha, bracing herself on her legs as she used Boscha’s momentum against her. Boscha was lifted and flipped over Willow’s shoulders, crashing down hard on the tile next to her. I looked at Willow now, whose labored breathing revealed her exhaustion and pain. 

Boscha wheezed, but once again rolled and quickly rose to her feet. Her movements were sluggish, and the fire around her hands wavered. Once again, she moved at Willow. 

“Boscha, that’s  _ enough! _ ” I cried, attempting to reach out and grasp her. As I did, I saw Willow trace another wide, green spell circle on the ground next to her. A deafening silence filled the air as a girthy vine sprung out from the space, its width rivaling that of a tree trunk. Willow quickly retracted her hand and I saw, in the briefest of moments, a look of fear and regret wash over her face. The vine caught Boscha unsuspecting, throwing its full weight into her shoulder and side. A collective gasp filled the room as we watched Boscha be carried bodily by the thundering vine, launching her through an outward facing window, straight out of Hexside. Boscha merely yelped as the vine sent her crashing through the glass and out into the open air, out of sight. From outside I could just barely hear the rustling of trees and breaking branches.

Willow screamed. “ _ Boscha! _ ” I quickly ran after her as she barreled down the stairs, throwing students still frozen with shock to the side as she ran. We careened down the winding stairs onto the first floor, passing by Principal Bump and a group of enforcers shouting down at us for explanations. In the midst of all the thundering commotion, I could distinctly hear Luz as she tried to reach out to us, standing at the foot of the stairs. 

“Amity?  _ Willow _ ?” Her voice was shaky. I wanted to stop and throw my arms around her, beg to go home. But I kept running after Willow. I called over my shoulder to Luz. 

“Boscha’s hurt!” was all I could muster. With only a moments’ hesitation, Luz took off running alongside us, joining in our bull rush.

Willow and I flew around corners, still knocking over students as we ran. The commotion must have been loud enough to capture the attention of the entire school, for now we watched as after-school clubs began poking their collective heads out into the hall to watch us rush past. Behind us I could hear the steady plodding of Bump and his cohort.

Willow threw herself through the side entrance door, Luz and I hot on her heels. We cast our eyes around, looking for where Boscha may have landed. From where we were upstairs, it was clear that Boscha flew straight out the window and fell two stories into either the side quad or the nearby treeline. Willow scanned the treeline as I shot a glance to Luz who was multitasking, keeping an eye on us and scrabbling a healing glyph on a large notepad she had yanked from her bag.

“ _ There! _ ” Willow shouted, pointing at a crumpled heap at the base of a copse of ember trees. Boscha lay half-splayed out on a bed of freshly broken branches, her pink hair and torn jacket blending in sweetly with the burning rose colored ember pine needles. My heart dropped into my stomach at the sight of her. Her skin around her hands, face, and neck were clearly scratched as her fall was broken by the tree copse. Although the fact that her fall was broken by the tree line may have saved her life, the sight of her blood oozing from several severe cuts and gashes caused my stomach to churn. 

The three of us ran over towards her, Willow sobbing as she dropped to her knees next to her. My heart leapt into my throat. From a distance she looked completely motionless, but as we approached her now I could clearly see her chest shakily rising and falling in rough, jerking motions. She was breathing but with apparent great difficulty. Luz acted quickly, getting ahead of me and kneeling down next to Willow.

“ _ Boscha! I’m so sorry, Boscha - I didn’t mean to! _ ” Willow wracked with sobs as she held out her hands to the pink haired witch, unsure of what to do. She held her hands over various points of her injuries, not making contact but clearly searching for something she could do to help. Luz murmured something about Boscha’s ribs, looking over her injuries with great care. I cast my eyes over my shoulder to see the door swing open, Principal Bump appearing in its frame. 

“Hold this, quickly.” Luz said with a severity and calm that shocked me. She held out a prepared healing glyph out to me over her shoulder, hardly waiting for me before she started drawing a new one on an equally large sheet of paper. Her hands moved quickly, tracing the winding snake and the two bandages quickly, before finishing off the circle. She tore the page with steady hands, careful not to interrupt the glyph, and laid it out on Boscha’s right side. 

“Hang on, Boscha - this might hurt.” Luz said as she placed her hand over the glyph and gently pressed down. The glyph worked exactly as it did the first time, dissolving in a haze of blue and white into Boscha’s form. Evidently satisfied, Luz held her hand out to me for the other glyph. I passed it off and quickly moved over to Willow’s side, whose incoherent stammering had devolved into long, continuous sobbing. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and tried my best to guide her slightly away from Boscha, whispering my best assurances. Meanwhile, Luz pressed the second glyph on Boscha’s other side, muttering curses as she did. The glyph dissolved, and Boscha’s breathing hitched wildly. 

The pink haired witch wheezed and sucked in air, a long continuous breath that sounded at first to be painful. Luz laughed triumphantly before setting onto her notebook again, drawing more glyphs. “ _ Mamá, me enseñaste bien.”  _ Boscha coughed loudly, still taking in deep, life-saving breaths of air as Luz began rapidly pressing glyphs on the larger gashes on her arms and neck. She managed to heal two of the more dramatic cuts, immediately halting the flow of blood with fresh-looking but otherwise healthy scabs, before the air around Luz began to glow with an otherworldly seafoam green. Suddenly she was thrown bodily backwards, skidding along the grass. 

“ _ Ladies! What is the meaning of this!” _ Principal Bump’s sonorous yell thundered over my shoulder. After Luz was flung away from Boscha I could feel the ground move away from my feet as well. Willow and I were raised several inches from the air and moved backwards with unexpected care. “ _ Boscha!” _ Bump yelled, dropping us and rushing to her side. 

“ _ Titan, what have you three done! _ ” He growled at nobody in particular. “Boscha, are you alright?” He said with surprising softness. None of us moved. I don’t think any of us knew how we would protest, anyhow. Willow had stopped crying, clearly relieved at Boscha’s apparent recovery. I stood with my arms around her shoulders and felt her shaking as we both tuned into Bump’s quiet conversation with the prone witch.

“Principal Bump… it’s okay.” We heard Boscha croak out. “I’m okay. It was my fault. I challenged Willow to a witch’s duel for the right to a spot on the grudgby team. I caught her by surprise it was… it was all my fault. She was just defending herself.” 

Bump turned around, still kneeling. I could see the claws of his demon companion rhythmically tightening on his shoulders. He looked directly at Willow whose whole body tensed. “Is this true, Willow? Defending yourself for a spot on the team?” 

Boscha’s gambit was puzzling, but it made sense to me straight away. Admit it was a spur of the moment cage match and suddenly the consequences become much more dire and nobody walks away having won anything. Appeal to Bump’s pride in overachievement and predilection for academic hazing and suddenly the rules change. 

“It’s… it’s true. I--  _ we _ got carried away. I’m sorry.” Willow eked out, barely a whisper now and almost imperceptible from the wind rustling through the trees. Bump turned back to Boscha.

“Let me see if I have this correct. You challenge a student showing an interest in joining the team to an impromptu witch’s duel, attacking her in the hallway, and she throws you out the second floor window on accident?” Hearing it spelled out like that made all our ears twitch, even Boscha. It sounded like bullshit because it was. Even more puzzling was why Boscha even cared to play the guilty card to begin with, considering she could have sold the three of us out and been rid of us for good. My mind raced at all of this, jaw slackening as I watched Boscha gaze weakly up towards the Principal. 

“That’s --  _ oh,”  _ Boscha let out a pained groan as she tried to sit up. “That’s about the long and short of it, I guess.” She smirked at him before shooting a glance over to Luz. I followed her gaze. Luz was hugging her notebook, fixating on her feet as they kicked at the dirt. 

“This is  _ highly  _ irregular. And  _ highly  _ inappropriate, even for you  _ Boscha _ .” Bump was practically spitting venom now. He rose sharply and walked a few paces away, resting his hand on his head. Glancing over my shoulder I could see a handful of enforcers escorting what looked to be some healing coven students and their professor over to our gathering. Bump spun on his heel and turned back, standing between Boscha, Willow and I now. 

“I should kick you out.” He started, quietly. “ _ All three of you! _ And you, too!” Shouting now, he pointed a finger over to Luz. She froze, gazing up at him with tears in her eyes. Bump sighed, and brushed down his dome once again. “Titan…” he whispered to himself. 

“Principal Bump, please, I…” Boscha started, beginning to try to stand. She didn’t get far before Bump pointed her down once again. 

“Stay right where you are.” He sighed exasperatedly. “I don’t want you getting any more hurt than you already are. The healers will be here shortly, they’ll take you to the infirmary before your father can come get you.” She cast her eyes away at this, cowed. 

None of us said anything as Bump paced. The healers stood at the edge of our circle, waiting for their cue. Finally, he stood straight, and centered himself. “Boscha, you’re benched. Off the team. Until you’ve  _ healed _ and until you’ve proven to me and your coach that you’re capable of more than impulse and violence.” I could see tears well up in her eyes at this, undoubtedly due in part to pain as much as the slight from Bump. He didn’t allow her to respond before moving on.

“Willow. You will join the construction coven students in cleaning up every single scrape, broken tile, and rogue plant upstairs. While you’re at it, you can tend to these trees caught in your crossfire.” He paused, searching Willow’s face. She avoided eye contact, standing motionless with her eyes fixated on the ground. “Tryouts are in two weeks. You clearly have potential that even Boscha sees, even though that clearly backfired today.” She glanced up at him now with a fear-stricken look in her eye. Her ears dipped low, but she said nothing in response.

Then, Bump pointed at Luz and I. “You, and you. All of you. This could have gone much,  _ much _ worse today, and if I’m reading things as clearly as I  _ think _ I am, then there is more to all of this that isn’t being shared with me. So be it. You have cost myself and each other enough as it is and I’m willing to let the consequences of your own actions be their own reward. But mark my words, if  _ any  _ of you step out of line one more time, I will make sure you never set foot in civilized society again, let alone in the halls of Hexside. Do I make myself clear?” 

The four of us let out a piteous “Yes, sir.” Bump nodded and waved on the healing coven students to attend their patient. They rolled out a stretcher from what appeared to be just a simple scroll before and lowered her gently onto it. Then, as quickly it had all started, it was over. Boscha was carried away, hugging herself and avoiding our concerned gazes as she was moved past us. The middling crowd of gawking students dispersed but not before mumbling their disappointment and shock. I watched as some of the peanut gallery gawked at Willow as I walked her inside, though whether it was out of fear or awe I couldn’t tell. Luz quietly padded behind us, likely also bearing the heavy weight of shame and guilt all for merely being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nevertheless, during the considerably slower walk back to the stair spire, all I could think of was Boscha’s actions.

She threw herself at Willow and I in the hallway, and there is no way that the pathetic yarn she spun to Bump had any bearing in reality. Willow feared grudgby almost as much as confrontation, and yet she was quick to step up for me when it became apparent that Boscha wasn’t going to back down with words alone.  _ Then why did Boscha lie to protect us?  _ As my mind raced I tried to anchor myself to Willow who had also been silent during the walk. 

“Hey, Willow?” I said softly to her. “Are you okay?”

“No. Not really.” She said meekly in response, avoiding eye contact. She rubbed her arm but didn’t move to get away from me, which I was grateful for. I glanced over to Luz who was now flanking Willow’s other side. Our eyes met and we shared a thin, tired smile. “ _ Thank you. _ ” I mouthed to her, silently. She only smiled and rested her hand on Willow’s shoulder. Without her quick thinking, we would likely have all been expelled today. Or worse. Things were obviously the furthest thing from being  _ okay _ but thinking of how Luz rushed in to help Boscha in spite of everything made me feel as though everything was going to be alright. 

Gus regrouped with us, completely shocked that he managed to miss everything that had happened having been held up by a long running and apparently very “shouty” HAS meeting. Together, the four of us helped out some of the construction coven student volunteers in cleaning up the wreckage. Mostly it meant watching as the construction students magically wove tiles and glass back together after Willow banished her floral familiars, but the three of us laid the moral support on thick. Once the accompanying enforcer was satisfied with our progress, we turned and left in silence. The tension was palpable, and I reeled at the sight of the still-lingering peanut gallery of chattering students watching as we went. Watching Willow, especially. She walked with her eyes cast down, avoiding their gaze, but I could sense the toll it was taking. Once we were on the other side of the front door the four of us let out a collective sigh of relief.

“C’mon. Let’s go back home.” Luz said to us softly, smiling. “I think we could all use some R&R.” She beckoned us on as we set off towards the Owl House, all grateful to put the events of today behind us.

**Author's Note:**

> Short note on age: I decided to presume all the main characters are closer to 16, the Blight twins closer to 17 or 18. Everything in this fic will remain strictly PG and age appropriate (unless the time skips end up going years into the future), but I'm hoping to advance time in such a way over the course of the fic that we're going to see birthdays and the next steps into life along with all of the potential emotional challenges that come with that, so I just wanted it to make narrative sense. Nbd
> 
> I love the idea of scoring and I listen to a lot of music while writing so here's a song that I think captures this chapter's vibe. :)  
> https://youtu.be/s7tnTucP1UM
> 
> and finally, this is the first fic I've written since literally like, 2005 so I'm OOTL on a lot of stuff and this is mostly just a fun little project for me to work on and share (particularly while we wait anxiously for S2) but I'm always hungry for feedback so if you read this and wanna let me know your thoughts I'm no stranger to constructive criticism. Thanks for reading and see you in the next chapter <3


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